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Gallstone ileus is an uncommon entity, which accounts for 1-4% of all presentations to hospital with small bowel obstruction and for up to 25% of all cases in patients over 65 years of age. Despite medical advances over the last 350 years, gallstone ileus is still associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality. The management of gallstone ileus remains controversial. Whilst open surgery has been the mainstay of treatment, more recently other approaches have been employed, including laparoscopic surgery and lithotripsy. However, controversy persists primarily in relation to the extent of surgery performed. A literature review was performed in an attempt to discover the optimal surgical treatment of gallstone ileus, particularly the timing of biliary surgery. Published articles were identified from the medical literature by electronic searches of Pubmed and Ovid Medline databases, using the search terms 'gallstone ileus', 'gallstone/intestinal obstruction' and 'gallstone/bowel obstruction'. The related articles function of the search engines was also used to maximise the number of articles identified. Relevant articles were retrieved and additional articles were identified from the references cited in these articles. The literature on gallstone ileus is composed entirely of retrospective analysis of small numbers of patients accumulated over many years. The question as to whether one stage or interval biliary surgery should be performed remains unanswered and it is unlikely that further case series will help decision making in the management of gallstone ileus. Whilst many authors conclude that enterolithotomy alone is the best option in most patients, a one-stage procedure should be considered for low-risk patients.

Liver transplantation is a highly successful treatment, but is severely limited by the shortage in donor organs. However, many potential donor organs cannot be used; this is because sub-optimal livers do not tolerate conventional cold storage and there is no reliable way to assess organ viability preoperatively. Normothermic machine perfusion maintains the liver in a physiological state, avoids cooling and allows recovery and functional testing. Here we show that, in a randomized trial with 220 liver transplantations, compared to conventional static cold storage, normothermic preservation is associated with a 50% lower level of graft injury, measured by hepatocellular enzyme release, despite a 50% lower rate of organ discard and a 54% longer mean preservation time. There was no significant difference in bile duct complications, graft survival or survival of the patient. If translated to clinical practice, these results would have a major impact on liver transplant outcomes and waiting list mortality. Normothermic machine perfusion of the liver improved early graft function, demonstrated by reduced peak serum aspartate transaminase levels and early allograft dysfunction rates, and improved organ utilization and preservation times, although no differences were seen in graft or patient survival.

Background Postoperative nausea and vomiting is one of the most common complications affecting patients after surgery and causes significant morbidity and increased length of hospital stay. It is accepted that patients undergoing surgery on the bowel are at a higher risk. In the current era of minimally invasive colorectal surgery combined with enhanced recovery, reducing the incidence and severity of postoperative nausea and vomiting is particularly important. Dexamethasone is widely, but not universally used. It is known to improve appetite and gastric emptying, thus reduce vomiting. However, this benefit is not established in patients undergoing bowel surgery, and dexamethasone has possible side effects such as increased risk of wound infection and anastomotic leak that could adversely affect recovery. Design DREAMS is a phase III, double-blind, multicenter, randomized controlled trial with the primary objective of determining if preoperative dexamethasone reduces postoperative nausea and vomiting in patients undergoing elective gastrointestinal resections. DREAMS aims to randomize 1,350 patients over 2.5 years. Patients undergoing laparoscopic or open colorectal resections for malignant or benign pathology are randomized between 8 mg intravenous dexamethasone and control (no dexamethasone). All patients are given one additional antiemetic at the time of induction, prior to randomization. Both the patient and their surgeon are blinded as to the treatment arm. Secondary objectives of the DREAMS trial are to determine whether there are other measurable benefits during recovery from surgery with the use of dexamethasone, including quicker return to oral diet and reduced length of stay. Health-related quality of life, fatigue and risks of infections will be investigated. Trial registration ISRCTN21973627