NOMI is a rare disease with a difficult diagnosis. Early recognition and treatment with supportive therapy, vasodilator drugs and possibly surgery can significantly lower mortality.
We discuss the long history of a patient still alive with a primary gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST) of the transverse mesocolon: initially it presented as an acute complication, namely a haemorrhagic shock caused by rupture of the tumour and it recurred twice locally in the years following primary resection. Each time, a macroscopically complete resection could be achieved. Six years after the resection of the primary tumour, a liver metastasis was discovered, which was removed by radio frequency ablation (RFA). Eight months later, the patient developed a new liver metastasis and a retropancreatic mass deemed unresectable. He is treated with imatinib mesylate (Glyvec, Novartis, Vilvoorde, Belgium) since and has had a stable disease for 6 months. Gastrointestinal stromal tumours outside the gastrointestinal tract are rare. Until a few years ago the only possible therapy was surgical resection. Nowadays radio frequency ablation can be a solution for irresectable liver metastases, and imatinib mesylate can bring improvement for advanced and metastasized tumours. Whether this could also be useful as an adjuvant therapy has not yet been investigated, but it could be important knowing that 38% of the tumours recur locally and 15% metastasize. The most important prognostic factors for gastrointestinal stromal tumours are grading and complete resection.
The totally extraperitoneal laparoscopic approach for repairing inguinal hernia should have a promising future, because the same principles as the classical tension-free repair are followed. Preliminary results are promising. Further studies, even randomized prospective trials and fair reports of complications, will determine the future of laparoscopic hernia surgery.
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