Mesenteric cysts are uncommon benign abdominal lesions with no classical clinical features. The preoperative diagnosis requires the common imaging modalities but the final diagnosis is established only during surgery or histological analysis. The treatment of choice is complete surgical excision. We report an 18-year-old female with a non-specific abdominal pain and discomfort since 3 weeks. He...

We investigated two outbreaks of an unusual gastrointestinal illness that affected at least 47 people in Oregon and Michigan in February through March and May through June 1982. The illness was characterized by severe crampy abdominal pain, initially watery diarrhea followed by grossly bloody diarrhea, and little or no fever. It was associated with eating at restaurants belonging to the same fa...

We present the case of a child with abdominal cramping found to have radiopaque matter in his gastrointestinal tract on plain radiography. The parents denied ingestion of a foreign substance but specific questioning revealed a visit for dental care the previous day. This may serve to illustrate the benefits of taking a careful goal-directed history as opposed to the often recommended open-ended...

A 40-year-old African-born woman with HIV presented with a several-month history of progressive, painful bilateral neck swelling. She stated that she had been unable to eat because of the excruciating pain. She reported intermittent fevers as well but denied any shortness of breath or cough. She also reported right upper-quadrant abdominal pain and mild abdominal distension. She was admitted to...

A lymphangioma is a benign proliferation of lymph vessels, producing fluid-filled cysts that result from a blockage of the lymphatic system. The incidence of abdominal lymphangiomas is unknown; however they account for from 3% to 9.2% of all pediatric lymphangiomas, with retroperitoneal lymphangioma representing less than 1% of abdominal lymphangiomas. Due to rarity, preoperative diagnosis is o...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the benefits and limitations of using three dimensional (3D) musculoskeletal modelling (LifeModeler) in assessing the safety and efficacy of exercising on an abdominal crunch resistance training machine. Three anthropometric cases were studied, representing a 5th percentile female, and 50th percentile and 95th percentile male. Results indicated that the Lif...

A disease consisting of persistent muscle cramps involving distal muscle groups that occurred in 12 members of the same family is described. The cramps appeared on exertion and in full relaxation or during sleep. In the third generation they appeared in the second decade; in the fourth and fifth generations in childhood with higher frequency and intensity of cramps. The disease is not sex linke...

BACKGROUND Unscheduled return visits to the emergency department (ED) may reflect shortcomings in care. This study characterized ED return visits with respect to incidence, risk factors, reasons and post-ED disposition. We hypothesized that risk factors for unscheduled return and reasons for returning would differ from previous studies, due to differences in health care systems. METHODS All u...

OBJECTIVE Our aim was to study the therapeutic effects and the mechanism of combination of hemofiltration (HF) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) in the treatment of severe acute pancreatitis (SAP). METHODS Fifty-one cases of SAP were randomly divided into the HF+PD group (treated group, 36 patients) and the non-HF+PD group (control group, 15 patients). Both groups were treated by the same traditio...