A 73-year-old man who had undergone right common iliac-right femoral-left femoral artery bypass, and left femoral-popliteal artery bypass at 60, and stent graft for abdominal aortic aneurysm at 69, had a pseudoaneurysm repaired at the left femoral artery anastomosis site at 72. Retention of fluid continued around the prosthesis, so drainage and sartorius muscle flap were carried out at 72. Due to the occlusion of the left popliteal bypass, a cross over bypass was performed from the right iliac artery position to the left above knee popliteal artery through the left obturator foramen route. One month later, CT revealed that the prosthesis had penetrated the bladder. In open surgery, the bladder was incised, and the prosthesis was taken out of it. The postoperative course was uneventful. Oral antibiotics were continued for 3 months. Currently, there are no signs of infection. There are very few opportunities to choose an obturator foramen route. It was necessary to identify the bladder wall under direct vision with great care.

Objective: To describe the case of a patient with intraperitoneal bleeding from the gastroepiploic artery by endoscopic ultrasound who was successfully treated with transcatheter arterial coil embolization.Patient and Methods: An 87-year-old man was referred to our hospital for examination of a gallbladder tumor. Endoscopic ultrasonography was performed using an oblique-view echoendoscope. After the endoscopic ultrasound, the patient went into shock. Computed tomography revealed a huge intraperitoneal hematoma and an aneurysm in the right gastroepiploic artery that were not seen on previous computed tomography images. Thus, urgent catheter angiography was performed, which showed a pseudoaneurysm of the right gastroepiploic artery and extravasation of the contrast medium from the pseudoaneurysm.Results: Transcatheter arterial coil embolization was subsequently performed, and the bleeding stopped. Thereafter, his hemodynamics stabilized and his general condition improved. The patient was discharged 22 days post-treatment with an uneventful course.Conclusion: Observation-only endoscopic ultrasound without invasive procedures can cause intraperitoneal bleeding due to a ruptured splanchnic artery. Thus, endoscopic ultrasonography should be performed more carefully in elderly patients.

Objective: Retrieval is challenging once prophylactic pancreatic stents migrate deep into the pancreatic duct. Herein, we describe a case of successful endoscopic retrieval of a migrated prophylactic pancreatic stent using a basket catheter through a biliary plastic stent pusher tube.Patient: A 71 year-old man was referred to our hospital for removal of a straight-shaped migrated 5-Fr 3-cm prophylactic pancreatic stent with a flap on the duodenal side. There were no subjective symptoms at the time of the hospital visit.Results: During endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, we inserted an 8.5-Fr plastic biliary stent pusher tube in front of the migrated pancreatic stent. The stent was then grasped using a basket catheter for peroral cholangioscopy through the biliary stent pusher tube. The stent was pulled into the pusher tube and was successfully retrieved from the pancreatic duct. No complications were associated with endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography.Conclusion: Although rare, prophylactic pancreatic duct stent migration after pancreatic duct guidewire placement should be noted. In our case, endoscopic retrieval of a migrated prophylactic pancreatic stent using a basket catheter for peroral cholangioscopy through the biliary plastic stent pusher tube was successful.

PURPOSE: Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a form of arteriosclerosis that occurs in the extremities and involves ischemia. Previous studies have reported that patients with periodontitis are at high risk for PAD. However, the relationship between these 2 diseases has not yet been fully elucidated. In this cross-sectional study, we investigated this relationship by comparing patients with PAD to those with arrhythmia (ARR) as a control group. METHODS: A large-scale survey was conducted of patients with cardiovascular disease who visited Tokyo Medical and Dental University Hospital. We investigated their oral condition and dental clinical measurements, including probing pocket depth, bleeding on probing, clinical attachment level, and number of missing teeth; we also collected salivary and subgingival plaque samples and peripheral blood samples. All patients with PAD were extracted from the whole population (n = 25), and a matching number of patients with ARR were extracted (n = 25). Simultaneously, ARR patients were matched to PAD patients in terms of age, gender, prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, obesity, and the smoking rate (n = 25 in both groups). Real-time polymerase chain reaction was performed to measure the bacterial counts, while the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method was used to measure anti-bacterial antibody titers and proinflammatory cytokine levels in serum. RESULTS: PAD patients had more missing teeth (18.4±2.0) and higher serum levels of C-reactive protein (1.57±0.85 mg/dL) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (70.3±5.7 pg/mL) than ARR patients (12.0±1.7, 0.38±0.21 mg/dL, and 39.3±4.5 pg/mL, respectively). Meanwhile, no statistically significant differences were found in other dental clinical measurements, bacterial antibody titers, or bacterial counts between the 2 groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggested that PAD patients had poorer oral and periodontal state with enhanced systemic inflammation.
Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; Arteriosclerosis ; Bacterial Load ; C-Reactive Protein ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Dyslipidemias ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Extremities ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Inflammation ; Ischemia ; Methods ; Obesity ; Periodontitis ; Peripheral Arterial Disease ; Prevalence ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Tooth ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha

We report a rare case of cardiac metastases of leiomyosarcoma. A 64-year-old woman presented with chest pain. Nineteen years ago, she had undergone resection of uterine leiomyosarcoma 19 years pveviously and 9 years previously, resecting of colon metastases. Echocardiogram and computed tomogram revealed tumor in the right ventricular outflow tract, which moved into the pulmonary artery. Because obstruction of the main pulmonary artery was possible, the tumor was resected. The tumor was leiomyosarcoma, which suggested metastasis from the uterine tumor. No recurrence of the tumor was seen 9 months after surgery despite lack of any treatment.

Among the bacteria isolated from clinical specimens of hospitalized patients, one of the most intractable species was Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the causative agent of P. aeruginosa. It resists a variety of antibacterial agents. Carbapenem is known as one of a few that are efficacious for P. aeruginosa infections. Maintaining the drug susceptibility of pathogens leads to the favorable clinical outcome in patients with infections diseases. The excessive use of carbapenem and other antimicrobial agents results in the increase of drug-resistant mutants of P. aeruginosa. At a meeting of the Health Ministry's infectious disease control committee in June 2007, the necessity of using antibacterial agents in more rational ways was highlighted on the suggestion of some member pharmacists. Incidentally, during the periods from January to June and from July to December 2007, we studied the antimicrobial use density (AUD) of carbapenem agents and the occurrence ratio of carbapenem-resistant mutamts of P. aeruginosa. The results showed that the occurrence of drug-resistant mutants decreased in proportion to the decrease of AUD. We believe the investigation of the AUD of any antibacterial agents is an important task pharmacists should take upon themselves to control infectious diseases. By reporting the results of our investigation on a regular basis, we are going to make a modest contribution toward the optimum use of antimicrobial agents.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa ; Antibacterial drugs ; Carbapenems ; control ; occurrence

A 66-year-old man underwent replacement of the ascending aortic arch for acute aortic dissection (Stanford type A). During surgery, an ePTFE synthetic graft was anastomosed to the left axillary artery to transmit blood from the extracorporeal circulation. During arch branch reconstruction, the left axillary artery was anastomosed end-to-end to a Dacron synthetic graft and the ePTFE synthetic graft used to transport blood, and the terminal anastomotic site of the ePTFE synthetic graft was used. At about 3 months postoperatively, a bulge was noted below the left clavicle, and it was diagnosed as seroma based on CT and aspiration biopsy findings. His condition did not improve despite repeated paracentesis and drainage. The ePTFE was resected and replaced with a Dacron synthetic graft, resulting in case of his seroma.

A 63-year-old man was admitted due to acute congestive heart failure. Transesophageal echocardiography demonstrated quadricuspid aortic valve malformation with concomitant severe aortic regurgitation. The valve was replaced by a 21mm Edward-MIRA and the postoperative course was uneventful. Although quadricuspid aortic valve is a rare anomaly, its potential for severe valve failure in adulthood should not be neglected.

A 47-year-old man suffered an idiopathic esophageal rupture and an emergency operation was performed. Postoperative CT revealed an aortic dissection at the level of the infra-renal aorta and the right common iliac artery. The maximum diameter of the aorta was 3.0cm, and that of the right common iliac artery was 2.5cm with a patent false lumen. The operation was done using the right extra-peritoneal approach. When the infra-renal aorta was clamped and opened, the false lumen was located on the right anterior wall of the aorta. There were 3 communicating holes presumably being the points of entry or re-entry. A bifurcation Dacron graft was put into the aorta and the bilateral iliac artery. His postoperative course was good and he was discharged on the 15th day after surgery. In this case, since the patient had no history of severe pain except for the time of esophageal rupture, the localized abdominal aortic dissection was suspected to have simultaneously occurred with the idiopathic esophageal rupture.

We reviewed the clinical course of 127 patients who underwent treatment for atherosclerotic disease between June 1993 and January 2001. There were 108 men and 19 women. The ages ranged from 49 to 88 years with a median age of 71.2 at the time of the first operation. Major risk factors included ischemic heart disease (21%) and diabetes mellitus (20%). Ninety-five percent of the patients were followed successfully and the follow-up period ranged from 0 to 90 months with a mean of 33 months. Two patients died perioperatively due to myocardial infarction. There were 29 late deaths. The overall actuarial survival rate was 69.7% at 5 years. The 5-year actuarial survival rate and the mean survival time for men and women were 71.6%, 66.1 months and 62.3%, 58.9 months. The 5-year late survival rate and the mean survival time for patients with and without ischemic heart disease were 57.0%, 57.4 months and 74.2%, 68.5 months. The differences were not statistically significant. The 5-year late survival rate and the mean survival time for patients with and without diabetes mellitus were 65.5%, 59.1 months and 70.9%, 67.4 months. The differences were not statistically significant. Amputation was performed in 7 patients, the actuarial survival rate at 1 year and the mean survival time were 42.9%, 7.1 months for patients with amputation, and 93.0%, 69.5 months without amputation (p<0.01).