Case seriesPatients: Male, 33 • Male, 18 • Male, 19Final Diagnosis: Congenital band causing a small bowel obstructionSymptoms: Progressive abdominal pain that eventually becomes excessiveMedication: —Clinical Procedure: Laparoscopic band removalSpecialty: SurgeryObjective:Rare diseaseBackground:Among the causes of constipation are bands and adhesions that lead to obstructions at different points in the intestinal tract. These can occur as a consequence of healing following surgery or trauma. However, an entity known as congenital band exists where a band is present from birth. Here we report three such cases of adults with symptoms of intestinal obstruction, in whom a congenital band was discovered through exploratory laparoscopy.Case Reports:All three of these patients presented lacking a history of any abdominal trauma or previous abdominal surgeries, a fact that is often used to exclude an adhesion as a differential. All three recovered quickly and had relief of their symptoms following surgical intervention.Conclusions:Bands and adhesions are common surgical causes of small bowel obstruction, leading to symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, constipation, and obstipation. These bands almost always result from a prior abdominal surgery or from a recent abdominal trauma. The three cases presented here show a far more unusual picture of a band, one that is congenitally present, as there was an absence of such a history. This is significant because clinical suspicion of a band is often very low due to a lack of distinguishing clinical and diagnostic features, and when the past history is negative.

BackgroundVenous thromboembolism (VTE) is a major health care problem resulting in significant mortality, morbidity and increase in medical expenses. Patients with malignant diseases represent a high risk population for VTE. The American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) proposed, since 1986, prophylaxis guidelines that are unequally respected in surgical practice.MethodsDIONYS is a multinational, longitudinal and non-interventional registry including patients having undergone abdominal or pelvic surgery for cancer in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. Patients were evaluated with regard to VTE prophylaxis, during three consecutive visits, for their adherence to ACCP 2008 guidelines. Data were collected on type and duration of VTE prophylaxis, adherence to guidelines, and compliance with prescriptions, complications and possible reasons for omission of prophylaxis.ResultsBetween 2011 and June 2012, 921 adult patients were included and divided into abdominal (435), pelvic (390) and combined abdominal and pelvic surgery (96), 65.4 % being females. VTE prophylaxis was prescribed to 90 % of patients during hospitalization and to 28.3 % after hospital discharge. Prescriptions adhered to ACCP guidelines in 73.9 % of patients during hospitalization and 18.9 % after discharge. The reason of non-adherence was mainly the clinical judgment by the physician that the patient did not need a prophylaxis. The most commonly prescribed type of prophylaxis was pharmacological (low molecular weight heparin).ConclusionA wide gap exists between VTE prophylaxis in daily practice and the ACCP 2008 guidelines, in abdominal and pelvic cancer surgery. A better awareness of surgeons is probably the best guarantee for improvement of VTE prophylaxis in surgical wards.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40064-016-3057-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Patient: Male, 45Final Diagnosis: Mesenteric fibromatosisSymptoms: —Medication: —Clinical Procedure: Surgical removal of the mesenteric fibromatosisSpecialty: SurgeryObjective:Rare diseaseBackground:Mesenteric fibromatosis, also known as mesenteric desmoids, is part of the clinical-pathologic spectrum of deep fibromatosis, which encompasses a group of benign fibro-proliferative processes that are locally aggressive and have the capacity to infiltrate or recur without metastasis.Case Report:Case of a 45-year-old man, with a history of hypertension and lung fibrosis, presenting for a left abdominal mass, which was found incidentally during his lung fibrosis imaging. He complained of constipation due to pressure upon his bowel leading to difficulty in defecation.Conclusions:Although there are many overlapping criteria between gastrointestinal stromal tumors and mesenteric fibromatosis, making it difficult to discriminate between the two, there are differences that are unique to mesenteric fibromatosis that should be noticed during the diagnosis. In this case, mesenteric fibromatosis was unusual as it is not associated with Gardner’s syndrome, desmoid tumors, nor familial adenomatous polyposis, but was an incidental finding.

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The technique of "small bowel limb transposition" consists in leaving the gastro-jejunal anastomosis (GJA) intact. It involves stapling (sectioning) of the alimentary limb (AL) at the level of the gastric antrum and creating a new anastomosis between the AL and the antrum. The "small bowel limb transposition" is an easy, simple, and interesting technique to be performed for the correction and treatment of severe malnutrition after laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, but this single case is not sufficient to prove that this is a standard option.