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Aim: We analyzed our experience with a laparoscopic method for the treatment of acute diverticular disease., Methods: Between January 1994 and October 1999 a group of 52 patients who fulfilled the criteria for symptomatic diverticular disease in the descending and sigmoid colon underwent laparoscopy with resection of an average of 40 cm of the bowel. Intraabdominal mechanical anastomosis completed the procedure., Results: The use of ultrasonic scissors made the laparoscopic technique easier and shortened operative time. Operative morbidity was 15%. Two patients with acute diverticulitis and associated sepsis were reconverted to open surgery, and 4 patients presented postoperative rectal bleeding which ceased spontaneously. No long-term complications were found except in 1 patient who developed an incisional hernia through an entry port. Oral intake began between the second and third day. Postoperative hospitalization was 3-8 days (mean: 5.5 days) and mean operative time was 130 min (range: 70-240 min)., Conclusions: Despite the steep learning curve for this type of surgery, the good morbidity and mortality rates with the laparoscopic method, especially with high-risk groups of patients (age > 65 years, high blood pressure, etc.) suggest that this surgical option can be used efficiently and safely, and that it achieves better results than with open surgery. However, we feel that the treatment of patients with acute complications of diverticular colon disease requires extensive experience with laparoscopic colorectal surgery.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the complications and results of the laparoscopic opposite to open treatment of the acute cholecystitis., Methods: A retrospective randomized study with two groups of 30 patients each one. The parameters tested were age, sex, risk factors, surgical time, hospital stay, cholecystitis type, and early or late complications., Results: In the two groups there were no significant differences in age, sex, risk factors, type of cholecystitis and surgical time. The average of hospital stay was significantly longer for open cholecystectomy (9.5) than for laparoscopic technique (2.30) (p < 0.001). The complication rate was higher (7.30%) in open cholecystectomy., Conclusions: The laparoscopic cholecystectomy should be the standard procedure for the treatment of the acute cholecystitis.

Objective: The morbid obesity is a serious polysystematic disease to which it is necessary to offer a surgical solution when the conservative alternatives fail., Methods: In a period of five years, 50 patients with vertical ring gastroplasty (VRG) have been evaluated and protocolized in the program of surgery of the morbid obesity, with an average weight of 134.3 kg corresponding to an overweight and body mass index (BMI) average respectively, of 69.7 kg and 49.8 kg/m2., Results: The early morbidity has been scarce and the postoperative average stay of 7 days. The decrease of the percentage of weight, overweight and BMI was maximum 2 years later, with losses of 52 kg, with a percentage of loss of average overweight of 76.8% and a fall of 21 points in the BMI; however there was a partial recovery of the indexes in the following years. The accompanying pathology was solved in the period of studied time, although 84% of the patients referred vomits and practically 100% dietary limitations., Conclusions: The gastroplasty is a quick, simple technique and of scare morbimortality, although it is being subjected to criticism for the restrictions in the diet, quality of life and disruptions of the line of clamped. However, nowadays there is not a consensus on the ideal bariatric solution, and as a surgical alternative, the vertical gastroplasty can represent one of the techniques of choice for certain selected types of serious obesity.

The effects of chronic ischemia on the rat hepatocyte are morphometrically analyzed in the present study. Rats Wistar-Lewis are used. Rats underwent a stenosis of the celiac artery by using a metallic guide. The interval between the experimentation until the sacrifice was 15, 30, 90, 180, and 360 days. We have performed a morphometric study using a semiautomated image analyzer system (VIDS III, Analytical Measuring Systems). Morphological disturbances in the chronic ischemia periods above mentioned can be measured: an increase in the hepatocyte area starting from 90 days of experimentation and also an increase in the hepatocyte perimeter starting from 30 days of ischemia. On the other hand, both the nuclear area and the nuclear perimeter are increased in every period studied. The number of hepatocytes per microscopic field doesn't show any change in relation to ischemia time. Cellular swelling suggests some degree of cellular hypoxia in contradiction with other observations.

With the purpose of research the behaviour of the thyroid function after massive intestinal bowel resection, we have designed an experimental model of short bowel syndrome. For this aim two groups of study were employed, each one with seven animals (minipigs). RIA for T4, T3 y TSH were made in four different times: basal (R1), immediately after intestinal resection (R2), two weeks after it, and six months later (R4). The results show that, once short bowel syndrome is established, the animals remain in euthyroid state. But the transitory oscillations of T4 in R3 and T3 in R2 suggested that these could be caused for alterations in the enterohepatic circulation of thyroid hormones in the acute diarrheal state.