Introduction. Spontaneous rectus sheath hematoma (SRSH) is characterized by bleeding within the rectus abdominis muscle sheath, one of the rare causes of acute abdominal pain. Early diagnosis is imperative in SRSH to prevent complications and the treatment is usually conservative. We intended to present in this study our experience with SRSH patients with respect to diagnostic evaluation and management of their disease. Materials and Methods. In this retrospective study, 14 patients who had received treatment for SRSH in our clinic between January 2012 and December 2017 were assessed in terms of demographic and clinical characteristics, comorbidities, laboratory parameters, diagnostic approach methods, treatment practices, length of hospital stay, and patient outcomes. Results. The patients consisted of 10 (71.4%) females and 4 males (28.6%). The age of the patients ranged between 47 and 93 with a mean age of 66.5 ± 12.1. Anticoagulant treatments were being administered to 5 (35.7%) patients, antiplatelet treatments to 4 (28.5%) patients, and both anticoagulant and antiplatelet treatments to 4 (28.5%) patients. The most common triggering factor was severe cough and the most common initial symptom acute abdominal pain (71.4%). In physical examinations, the entire patients had generalized abdominal tenderness, 10 (71.4%) voluntary guarding and 7 (50%) a right lower quadrant mass. The diagnosis was confirmed by abdominal ultrasonography and computed tomography. Based on the computed tomography findings, the disease was classified as Type 2 found in 9 (64.3%) patients, Type 1 in 3 (21.4%) patients, and Type 3 in 2 (14.2%) patients. All the patients were treated conservatively. They were hospitalized for 1 to 23 days. There was no mortality. All the patients were followed up between 3 months and 2 years and no recurrence was recorded. Conclusion. Considering the presence of SRSH particularly in older female patients who use anticoagulant drugs and have newly developed an abdominal pain and a palpable mass after coughing spells is the key to make an early and correct diagnosis and to prevent possible morbidity and mortality with an appropriate treatment method.
Objectives: Nodular goiter is the most common disease of the thyroid gland. Thyroid nodules are malignant in 3-5% cases. To determine the incidence of malignancy in patients defined as atypia of undetermined significance (AUS) or follicular lesion of undetermined significance (FLUS) as a result of fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) and evaluate the clinical, biochemical and sonographic features as possible predictors of malignancy.
Methods: Patients who had undergone at least one FNAB and diagnosed as AUS/FLUS from January 2011 to December 2015 were included in the study. Age, gender, benign disease, thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) level, size, localization, number, time of FNAB, ultrasonography (USG) characteristics, follow-up data on repeated FNAB results and, if surgical excision was performed, final pathological results were analyzed.
Results: A total of 5181 thyroid nodules were biopsied in 4089 patients, and the biopsy specimen taken from 611 nodules was diagnosed histopathologically as AUS/FLUS (11.79%). After FNAB, 167 of 611 patients diagnosed with AUS/FLUS were operated. While 65.9% (n = 110) of 167 patients who underwent surgery were made a benign diagnosis; malign diagnosis was made to 34.1% (n = 57).
Conclusions: The rate of malignancy in surgically confirmed nodules was 34.1% in this study, which is higher than the Bethesda classification. Due to the high malignancy rate which determined in cytologically diagnosed AUS/FLUS, we think that the repeat decision of the FNAB should be reconsidered and the surgical plan after the first FNAB should be considered more seriously.
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