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In the era of routinely used ultrasound techniques intrasplenic tumors are diagnosed more frequently. Usually these findings are not combined with specific symptoms. However, large cysts can lead to malfunctions of nearly located organs by displacing. Etiopathogenetic findings in our region are mainly non parasitic, epithelial and traumatic cysts or tumors of the spleen. We describe a large splenic mass of a 44 years old female patient. Pathological dignity remained unclear after using sonographic, radiological and clinical techniques. After uncomplicated total splenectomy the histopathological diagnosis revealed a benign, pseudoinflammatory tumor of the spleen. Inflammatory pseudotumors are a benign response to an unknown cause. It must be a main objective of preoperative diagnostics to distinguish them from malignant processes.

A 43-year-old previously fit railway official collapsed in May, 1998, with an epileptic fit on the sidelines of a football pitch while watching his son’s match. His medical history was uneventful except for an appendicetomy a few years previously. He had smoked 30 cigarettes per day for many years, but had had a cough only for the last 3 months. Physical examination was normal except for chronic periodontitis. Laboratory examination showed the following abnormalities: white blood cell count 19·3 10/L (normal

In ten years a total of 1207 operations for gastroduodenal ulcer were performed, using a standardizing treatment scheme. The number of operations has markedly decreased since 1978, probably due to the introduction of H2-receptor blockers in the treatment of peptic ulcers. The results of operations suggest elective surgical treatment for ulcer patients at risk of complications. This is the only way of decreasing the adverse effect of emergency operations on the total surgical mortality of ulcer patients.

In a larger collective of surgical patients the behaviour of the individual thyroid parameters (T4, T3, rT3, TBG and thyroxine-binding capacity) were studied before, during and after operation and set in relation to each other. There are significant shifts in T4 metabolism towards the formation of rT3. In spite of its greatly reduced metabolic activity compared with T3, an important regulatory effect is attributed to rT3, in thyroid metabolism in stress situations.