Serum VEGF-A levels are significantly higher in obese patients than in lean controls, decreasing after weight loss with bariatric surgery, behaving similarly to other hormones related to adipose mass like leptin and insulin.

Single anastomosis duodeno-ileal bypass with sleeve gastrectomy (SADI-S) is a new operation for morbid obesity based on the biliopancreatic diversion in which a sleeve gastrectomy is followed by an end-to-side duodeno-ileal diversion. The preservation of the pylorus makes possible the reconstruction in one loop, which reduces operating time and needs no mesentery opening. We review the results obtained on the first 50 operated patients with 1 to 3 years follow-up. Eighteen men and 32 women with a mean BMI of 44 kg/m(2) were operated on. Hypertension was present in 50%, sleep apnea in 30%, hypertriglyceridemia in 60% and hypercholesterolemia in 43%.There were 27 type two diabetics, most of them on insulin therapy. There were two gastric staple-line leaks and one long-term subphrenic abscess. Follow-up is complete for 98% of the patients. Excess weight loss reached 94.7% at 1 year, and it was maintained over the second and third year. At 1 year, mild anemia has been detected in 10% of the cases. Albumin concentration was under normal levels in 8% of the patients in the first postoperative year, but all patients recovered to normal levels by the third postoperative year. All diabetic patients have normalized glucose or HbA1c levels after the sixth postoperative month with no need of anti-diabetic therapy. SADI-S is a promising operation which offers excellent weight loss and metabolic results. The elimination of one anastomosis reduces operative time and decreases the possibility of surgically related complications.

Ninety-three percent of the fatalities of the Madrid trains terrorist bombings were immediate, and most survivors had noncritical injuries. Closed doors increased the immediate fatality rate in the trains. Severely wounded casualties presented specific patterns of injuries, some of them life-threatening and unusual in other types of trauma mechanisms. Ear-lobe amputations and upper thoracic spine fractures were markers of critical injuries.

We report the case of a 21-yr-old woman who presented with a perforation of an upper esophageal ulcer on a patch of gastric-type mucosa. Despite surgical closure of the perforation and reinforcement with a pleuro-muscular flap the patient developed an esophageal leakage and died in the postoperative period. Heterotopic gastric mucosa in the upper esophagus is usually an asymptomatic abnormality, discovered incidentally during endoscopic studies carried out for some other reason; however, complications secondary to the inlet patch acid secreting capacity can arise, and this has to be kept in mind to elude life-threatening conditions.

Epithelioid hemangioendothelioma (EH) is a rare tumor of vascular origin, which occurs at sites such as soft tissues, liver, or lung, and has a highly unpredictable malignant potential. It is an intermediate entity between well-differentiated hemangioma and angiosarcoma. We present two cases of this rare disease in which the tumor was detected fortuitously and the definitive diagnosis was based on histological evidence. Both our cases are highly illustrative of the two ways in which hepatic EH can present (nodular or diffuse) and of its diagnostic and therapeutic management. Neoplastic cells expressed the factor VIII-related antigen, CD31 or CD34. Treatment was surgical resection in one patient and liver transplant in the other. Although EH of the liver has a better prognosis than other hepatic neoplasms, conservative treatment is not recommended. Our cases highlight the importance of a histological diagnosis to avoid it being mistaken for another entity.