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Introduction and Aim: The Balance of Risk (BAR) Score, a simple scoring system that combines six independent donor and recipient variables to predict outcome after liver transplantation (LT), was validated in a large U.S./European cohort of patients. This study aims to assess the performance of the BAR score to predict survival after liver transplantation and determine the factors associated with short and long-term survival in Latin-American patients., Material and Methods: A retrospective cohort study was performed in 194 patients [112 (55.4%) males; mean age 52±14 years] who underwent 202 LT during the period 2003-2015. Demographic, clinical, pathological and surgical variables, as well as mortality and survival rates, were analyzed. The BAR score was investigated through a receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve with the calculation of the area under the curve (AUC) to evaluate the predictive score power for 3-month, 1 and 5-year mortality in a matched donor-recipient cohort. Youden index was calculated to identify optimal cutoff points., Results: The AUC of BAR score in predicting 3-month, 1-year and 5-year mortality were 0.755 (CI95% 0.689-0.812), 0.702 (CI95% 0.634-0.764) and 0.610 (CI95% 0.539-0.678) respectively. The best cut-off point was a BAR score ≥15 points. In the multivariate analysis BAR score <15 was associated with higher survival rates at 3 months and 1 and 5-years., Conclusions: BAR score <15 points is an independent predictor of better short and long-term survival in Latin-American patients undergoing LT. The BAR scoring system has an adequate diagnostic capacity allowing to predict 3 and 12-month mortality., (Copyright © 2019 Fundación Clínica Médica Sur, A.C. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: Undertake a comparison between laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy (LDP) and open distal pancreatectomy (ODP) for the management of benign and malignant lesions., Methods: A case series study of 93 consecutive patients subjected to a distal pancreatectomy for pancreatic tumors between 2001 and 2015. In each patient, clinical and surgical characteristic, postoperative course, histopathologic examination, and survival were analyzed., Results: LDP was associated with significantly less operative blood loss (50 mL vs. 300 mL; P<0.01), higher spleen preservation rate (52.6% vs. 19.2%; P<0.01) and shorter hospital stay (5 d vs. 8 d; P<0.01). In patients with adenocarcinoma, survival at 1 and 5 years were 63.5% and 15.9% in the ODP group versus 66.7% and 33.3% in the LDP group (P=0.43)., Conclusions: LDP is a safe and feasible procedure for DP resections. LDP offers advantages over ODP in terms of reduction of operative blood loss, higher spleen preservation rate, and shorter hospital stay.