Background: Appendicitis is the most common acute abdominal condition requiring emergency surgery, with a lifetime risk of 6%. Appendectomy continues to be one of the commonest procedures in general surgery, accounts for approximately 1% of all surgical operation. Despite the increased use of ultrasonography, computed tomography scanning and laparoscopy, the rate of misdiagnosis of appendicitis has remained constant (15.3%). The aim of this study was to whether Serum Bilirubin can be considered as a new laboratory marker to aid in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis and if so, does it have the predictive capacity to warn us about complicated appendicitis.Methods: This was prospective observational study done in Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, Pondicherry between November 2014 and August 2016. About 110 patients of acute appendicitis who had undergone appendicectomy were studied. Data was collected and analyzed critically.Results: Males 66 (60%) outnumbered females 44 (40%) and overall mean age was 26.61±12.37 years. Of the 110 patients, 9% were normal appendix, 59.09% were confirmed as acute appendicitis while 31.81% were diagnosed with complicated appendicitis on biopsy. The Sensitivity and Specificity of serum bilirubin as a marker in predicting Acute appendicitis and complicated appendicitis was 47.6% and 90.9% respectively. Similarly, the Positive predicative value and Negative predicative value for the same was 88.5% and 61.5% respectively with odds ratio 12.4 with significant p value <0.0001.Conclusions: Serum bilirubin is easily available test and cheap and can be estimated from the sample of blood drawn for routine blood investigations. Patients with clinical signs and symptoms of appendicitis and with hyperbilirubinemia should be identified as having a higher probability of complicated appendicitis. Hence, serum bilirubin levels have a predictive potential for the diagnosis of severity of acute appendicitis and need for early appendicectomy. If total serum bilirubin is added to already existing laboratory tests, then the diagnosis of complicated appendicitis in clinically suspected cases can be made with fair degree of accuracy, the need for CECT and MRI can be reduced and unnecessary delay in appendicectomy can be avoided.

Sonography is useful in the evaluation of groin nodes for metastatic disease. It can help select a suspicious lymph node for cytologic/histologic confirmation.

A 38-year-old woman with generalized neurofibromatosis was admitted to the emergency department with complaint of pain and nontender mass in epigastrium. She had been treated in another hospital as an intra-abdominal abscess and tube drain was seen to be coming out of the centre of the mass. Later investigations and surgery revealed a large exophytic tumor arising from the posterior wall of the stomach infiltrating the transverse colon. Resection of the involved stomach and middle third of the transverse colon was done. Histology examination proved to be leiomyosarcoma positive for CD117 and S-100. Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) in neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) are multiple and commonly involve the small intestine. This is a rare case of GISTs in NF1 involving the stomach and presenting as an intra-abdominal abscess.

A 60-year-old woman presented to the accident and emergency department with a 3-day history of lower abdominal pain, which was sudden in onset, localised to the right iliac fossa, constant and aggravated by movements. On examination, she was febrile (100 · F), tachycardic and normotensive. Examination of the abdomen revealed an ill-defined tender mass in the right iliac fossa. A clinical diagnosis of appendicular mass was made and treated conservatively. After a few days the mass became smaller, firmer, mobile and non-tender. Since the mass persisted, the patient was investigated further to rule out carcinoma of the caecum. A contrast-enhanced CT (CECT) of the abdomen showed a mass with air pockets in the caecum, suggestive of caecal faecolith. After 6 weeks, appendicectomy and removal of the faecolith were performed. The postoperative period was uneventful. Histopathology of the appendix showed inflammatory changes confirming appendicitis.

Background: Surgery for thyroid disorders is the common operation in general surgery and total thyroidectomy is widely performed both for carcinoma as well as benign bilateral diseases of the thyroid and the most common complication is transient hypocalcaemia. A preliminary study was conducted to assess the risk factors for transient hypocalcaemia in our hospital.Methods: This was a prospective observational study conducted from February 2013 to April 2014 at the Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, Pondicherry and have included all patients undergone any type of thyroid surgery with a normal pre-operative serum calcium level. After initial clinical assessment, blood samples were drawn for estimation of thyroid function and serum calcium and albumin. Postoperative hypocalcemia was assessed by eliciting Chovstek’s and Troussea’s sign and biochemically estimating serum calcium and albumin at 6,24, and 24 hours intervals and 1st and 3rd months during follow-up. The risk factors involved are also studied like sex, age, type of thyroidectomy, identification of parathyroid, Identification of recurrent laryngeal nerve and their histology.Results: A total of 50 patients who underwent thyroidectomy were included in the study. The hypocalcemia occurred in 28% of patients studied showed that 66.7% of patients developed hypocalcemia at 48-72 hours. There was no statistical significance for the parameters of age or gender, benign and malignant conditions of thyroid. The analysis of type surgery performed showed a significant number of patients developing transient hypocalcaemia after near or total thyroidectomy (p-0.002).Conclusions: The present study, though consisted of a small group of patients has shown that transient hypocalcaemia after near or total thyroidectomy occurs in early post-operative days. Hence, on an average 2-5 days of hospital stay is mandatory. Near total or total thyroidectomy is a risk factor. Early diagnosis and replacement with calcium intra-venous reduce the morbidity and mortality of hypocalcaemia.