Conservative versus Surgical Treatment of Pneumatosis Intestinalis: Experience from a Multidisciplinary Center

BACKGROUND Pneumatosis intestinalis (PI) is an uncommon condition that is not specific to any particular disease. Currently, there is no specific clinical guideline for treating and diagnosing PI. Furthermore, there are numerous causes of PI, which makes it difficult for clinicians - internal medicine physicians as well as surgeons - to take a clinical approach to diagnosis and treatment. CASE REPORT We present 3 clinical scenarios with PI. In the first patient there was a solitary image of PI, which was treated successfully with parenteral nutrition and intravenous antibiotics, and he was discharged after 5 days. The other 2 cases, which involve gas in the hepatic portal vein (HPVG), were handled in 2 distinct ways: surgically and conservatively. One needed diagnostic laparoscopy with necrotic segmentectomy and was discharged from the hospital on postoperative day 16. The last patient, received resuscitation treatment due to severe comorbidities and inability to tolerate surgery. After 3 days, abdominal CT scan revealed no signs of remaining PI. However, the patient was terminally discharged after 7 weeks of treatment due to septic shock caused by sacrococcygeal ulcer and urinary tract infection. By drawing comparisons among these 3 scenarios, we aim to highlight certain indicators for conservative treatment success. CONCLUSIONS PI with HPVG is a sign of severe prognosis, which often requires surgical intervention. However, the decision to manage conservatively or surgically depends on the patient's condition and other criteria such as peritonitis, free fluid in the abdominal cavity, and the presence of shock. Physicians should also weigh the benefits and risks of surgical intervention in critically ill patients.

Catheter optimization during contrast ventriculography: a prospective randomized trial

Although newer contrast mediums have improved hemodynamic stability during left ventriculography, the image quality and hence the diagnostic yield of the procedure is largely determined by the choice of catheter and injection technique. In this study 125 patients were prospectively assigned at random to undergo ventriculography using either of two pigtail catheters, one with a straight shaft throughout its length (straight) and one with a 145-degree bend placed 6.5 cm from the distal end (angled). Injectate composition, flow rate, and volume were held constant for all injections, and baseline clinical and catheterization variables were found to be similar in each group. The angled catheter exhibited a statistically superior ease of insertion (p = 0.038) and took less time to position (p = 0.012), saving a mean of 23 seconds of fluoroscopy time per procedure. It was also associated with superior contour edge definition (p = 0.037) and a trend toward more uniform distribution of contrast medium (p = 0.089). Compared with the straight catheter, the angled catheter was less frequently accompanied by artifactual mitral regurgitation (p = 0.038) but was equally likely to provoke ventricular arrhythmias during injection. These observed differences may be explained in part by the tendency for angled catheters to more frequently localize in the central as opposed to the inferoposterior region of the left ventricular cavity (mean distance from center = 0.53 vs 1.10 cm, respectively; p less than 0.001).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)