Optimizing the Personalized Care for the Management of Rectal Cancer: A Consensus Statement

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in Turkey. The current guidelines do not provide sufficient information to cover all aspects of the management of rectal cancer. Although treatment has been standardized in terms of the basic principles of neoadjuvant, surgical, and adjuvant therapy, uncertainties in the management of rectal cancer may lead to significant differences in clinical practice. In order to clarify these uncertainties, a consensus program was constructed with the participation of the physicians from the Acıbadem Mehmet Ali Aydınlar and Koç Universities. This program included the physicians from the departments of general surgery, gastroenterology, pathology, radiology, nuclear medicine, medical oncology, radiation oncology, and medical genetics. The gray zones in the management of rectal cancer were determined by reviewing the evidence-based data and current guidelines before the meeting. Topics to be discussed consisted of diagnosis, staging, surgical treatment for the primary disease, use of neoadjuvant and adjuvant treatment, management of recurrent disease, screening, follow-up, and genetic counseling. All those topics were discussed under supervision of a presenter and a chair with active participation of related physicians. The consensus text was structured by centralizing the decisions based on the existing data.

Minimally invasive versus open surgery for gastric cancer in Turkish population

Objective: In this study, it was aimed to compare short-term outcomes of minimally invasive and open surgery for gastric cancer in the Turkish population carrying both European and Asian characteristics.

Material and Methods: Short-term (30-day) outcomes of the patients undergoing minimally invasive and open gastrectomy with D2 lymphadenec- tomy for gastric adenocarcinoma between January 2013 and December 2017 were compared. Patient demographics, history of previous abdominal surgery, comorbidities, short-term perioperative outcomes and histopathological results were evaluated between the study groups.

Results: There were a total of 179 patients. Fifty (28%) patients underwent minimally invasive [laparoscopic (n= 19) and robotic (n= 31)] and 129 (72%) patients underwent open surgery. There were no differences between the two groups in terms of age, sex, body mass index and ASA scores. While operative time was significantly longer in the minimally invasive surgery group (p< 0.0001), length of hospital stay and operative morbidity were com- parable between the groups.

Conclusion: While both laparoscopic and robotic surgery is safe and feasible in terms of short-term outcomes in selected patients, long operating time and increased cost are the major drawbacks of the robotic technique preventing its widespread use.

Dealing with the gray zones in the management of gastric cancer: The consensus statement of the İstanbul Group

The geographical location and differences in tumor biology significantly change the management of gastric cancer. The prevalence of gastric cancer ranks fifth and sixth among men and women, respectively, in Turkey. The international guidelines from the Eastern and Western countries fail to manage a considerable amount of inconclusive issues in the management of gastric cancer. The uncertainties lead to significant heterogeneities in clinical practice, lack of homogeneous data collection, and subsequently, diverse outcomes. The physicians who are professionally involved in the management of gastric cancer at two institutions in Istanbul, Turkey, organized a consensus meeting to address current problems and plan feasible, logical, measurable, and collective solutions in their clinical practice for this challenging disease. The evidence-based data and current guidelines were reviewed. The gray zones in the management of gastric cancer were determined in the first session of this consensus meeting. The second session was constructed to discuss, vote, and ratify the ultimate decisions. The identification of the T stage, the esophagogastric area, imaging algorithm for proper staging and follow-up, timing and patient selection for neoadjuvant treatment, and management of advanced and metastatic disease have been accepted as the major issues in the management of gastric cancer. The recommendations are presented with the percentage of supporting votes in the results section with related data.

Portal vein ligation and in situ liver splitting in metastatic liver cancer

The most serious complication after major liver resection is liver failure. Depending on preoperative liver function, a future liver remnant of 25%-40% is considered sufficient to avoid postoperative liver failure. A new technique known as portal vein ligation combined with in situ splitting has been developed to obtain rapid liver hypertrophy. Herein, we present a case where we performed portal vein ligation combined with in situ splitting. A 37-year-old male patient with a diagnosis of sigmoid adenocarcinoma and liver metastasis underwent anterior resection because of an obstructing sigmoid tumor and received palliative chemotherapy. After chemotherapy, abdominal computed tomography revealed a lesion, 50 mm in diameter, localized between segments 5-8 of the liver on the bifurcation of the anteroposterior segmental branch of the right portal vein. Computed tomography volumetric assessments of the liver were performed in the preoperative period, and it was found that the remnant left liver volume was less than 25%. In the first stage, portal vein ligation and in situ splitting of the liver parenchyma were performed. On the second and sixth postoperative days, computed tomography revealed hypertrophy of the left liver lobe. On the sixth day, a right hepatectomy was performed. Portal vein ligation combined with in situ splitting has been used by surgeons worldwide to obtain rapid and adequate liver hypertrophy. This new approach yields hope for patients with locally advanced liver tumors and may increase the number of curative resections for primary or metastatic liver tumors.

Predictive parameters of early postoperative complications in Crohn's disease: Single team experience

BACKGROUND/AIMS

Most of the patients with Crohn's disease (CD) may require at least one surgical procedure over their lifetime. However, these patients tend to have a high incidence of postoperative complications. The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the predictive parameters of postoperative complications in CD.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

All consecutive patients with CD between March 2001 and March 2016 who underwent bowel resection were included to this study. Postoperative complications were divided as; major complications including anastomotic leakage, ostomy complications, acute mechanical intestinal obstruction and hemorrhage, and minor complications including wound infection.

RESULTS

A total of 147 patients (74 females, 73 males) with a mean age of 36±11.9 years met the inclusion criteria. Behaviors of CD were stricturing in 90 (62%), fistulizing in 45 (30%) and inflammatory in 12 (8%) patients. Minimally invasive approach was applied in 35% (n=51) of the patients. Twentysix (17%) patients had early (≤30 days) postoperative surgical complications including anastomotic leak (n=10), intra-abdominal bleeding (n=2), complications related to ostomy (n=2), acute mechanical intestinal obstruction (n=1) and wound infection (n=11). Only fistulizing disease behavior was associated with early postoperative complications (p=0.014).

CONCLUSION

This study suggests that postoperative complications are still more common in fistulizing CD. Surgical approach did not affect the complication rate. The decision should be individualized according to the prominent risk factors and surgeons' preference.

Surgery for Intestinal Crohn's Disease: Results of a multidisciplinary approach

OBJECTIVES

Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that requires lifelong multidisciplinary management. Seventy percent of patients affected by Crohn's disease will require at least one surgical procedure over their lifetime. The aim of this retrospective study was to present our series of patients suffering from Crohn's disease who were scheduled for surgery by a multidisciplinary team.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The data were retrieved from a review of 950 patients with Crohn's disease treated at our institution between March 2000 and March 2016. Only patients with intestinal Crohn's disease were included into the study. A multidisciplinary team assessed the decision to perform surgery.

RESULTS

There were 203 patients who underwent surgery included in this study. One hundred and sixty-six were intestinal and 37 were perianal Crohn's disease. The mean age was 36±11.5 (range, 12-75) years. Ninety-two were stricturing, 45 were fistulizing, and 12 were inflammatory. The most commonly affected site was the ileocecal region (n=109, 65.7%), and the most common surgical procedure was the ileocecal resection (n=109, 65.6%). Laparoscopic approach was the procedure of choice in 56 (33.7%) patients. Of the patients enrolled, the most common early (<30 days) complications observed were the wound infection as the first (n=11) and anastomotic leak as the second (n=10). The mortality rate was 2.4% (n=4).

CONCLUSION

Multidisciplinary approach to Crohn's disease may decrease the surgical complications and recurrence rates leading to a better treatment.

Visual evoked potentials and pulse wave velocity in inflammatory bowel disease

BACKGROUND/AIMS

Data about the effects of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) on various functions of the nervous and cardiovascular systems are limited. In this study, the visual neuronal and cardiovascular functions of patients with IBD were evaluated by measuring visual evoked potentials (VEP) and pulse wave velocity (PWV), respectively.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

There were three study groups: the Crohn's disease (CD) group (n=25), the ulcerative colitis (UC) group (n=30), and a healthy control (C) group (n=25). The exclusion criteria were as follows: patients with IBD were in remission, had no extra-intestinal manifestations of the disease, had no additional chronic disease(s), and had been receiving medical treatment for their IBD without any previous surgical intervention. VEP amplitudes (mV) and the N2 and P2 latencies (ms) were recorded for visual-neuronal analysis of all study groups. For cardiovascular assessment in all study groups, PWV was measured noninvasively as follows: the carotid-femoral PWV with the Complior Colson device (The authors have no conflict of interest.) and the PWV along the aorta with two ultrasound strain-gauge pressure-sensitive transducers (TY-306 Fukuda pressure-sensitive transducers - Fukuda Denshi Co, Tokyo, Japan) fixed transcutaneously over the course of a pair of arteries separated by a known distance. The right femoral and right common carotid arteries were the ones used.

RESULTS

The PWV levels of the CD and UC groups were significantly higher than those in the C group (p<0.001). In the bilateral recording of the VEP, the N2 latencies of the CD (p<0.05) and UC (p<0.01) groups were significantly longer than those in the C group.

CONCLUSION

In this study, we showed vascular and visual neuronal impairments at a subclinical stage in patients with both types of IBD.