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The amount of formed bone in the periosteoplasty group was insufficient. There was no difference among the bone graft and rhBMP-2 therapy considering the parameters analyzed.

Perioperative oral glutamine supplementation increases total rupture strength and improves the percent area of mature collagen at the anastomoses sites on postoperative days 3 and 8.

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Umbilical hernia occurs in 20% of the patients with liver cirrhosis complicated with ascites. Due to the enormous intraabdominal pressure secondary to the ascites, umbilical hernia in these patients has a tendency to enlarge rapidly and to complicate. The treatment of umbilical hernia in these patients is a surgical challenge. Ascites control is the mainstay to reduce hernia recurrence and postoperative complications, such as wound infection, evisceration, ascites drainage, and peritonitis. Intermittent paracentesis, temporary peritoneal dialysis catheter or transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt may be necessary to control ascites. Hernia repair is indicated in patients in whom medical treatment is effective in controlling ascites. Patients who have a good perspective to be transplanted within 3-6 mo, herniorrhaphy should be performed during transplantation. Hernia repair with mesh is associated with lower recurrence rate, but with higher surgical site infection when compared to hernia correction with conventional fascial suture. There is no consensus on the best abdominal wall layer in which the mesh should be placed: Onlay, sublay, or underlay. Many studies have demonstrated several advantages of the laparoscopic umbilical herniorrhaphy in cirrhotic patients compared with open surgical treatment.

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Comparative pulmonary function after cholecystectomy performed through Kocher's incision, a mini-incision, and laparoscopy was evaluated. Forty-five patients were randomly and prospectively divided into three groups of 15 each, depending on the surgical access employed. Forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume at 1 second (FEV1), and forced expiratory flow at 25% to 75% (FEF25-75%) were determined 1 to 3 days before and 16 to 24 hours after cholecystectomy. The percent reduction of FVC (p = 0.0170), FEV1 (p = 0.0191), and FEF25-75% (p = 0.0045) was smaller after laparoscopic cholecystectomy than after Kocher's incision cholecystectomy. The percent reduction of FVC (p = 0.0170) was smaller after mini-incision cholecystectomy than after Kocher's incision cholecystectomy. There was no difference in the FEV1 (p = 0.0971) or FEF25-75% (p = 0.2058) between these two groups. FEF25-75% was significantly less impaired in the laparoscopic group than in the mini-incision group (p = 0.0327). No difference between these two groups was found in FVC (p = 0.5755) or FEV1 (p = 0.3952). It is concluded that postoperative pulmonary function is less impaired after laparoscopic cholecystectomy than after either mini-incision or Kocher's incision cholecystectomy.