Left-sided gallbladder, a rare congenital anomaly, is often associated with transposition of single or multiple viscera of thorax and/or abdomen. Clinical features and routine presurgical ultrasonography could miss the anomalous position thereby producing unnecessary anxiety during surgery. Here we are reporting a patient with leftsided gallbladder, known to have dextrocardia with multiple intracardiac anomalies, and detected incidentally in a series of 1258 consecutive laparoscopic cholecystectomies. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy was performed successfully in this patient with port site modification and careful dissection. Some degree of abdominal visceral situs inversus is to be anticipated in patients with dextrocardia

Bowel interposition and auto-transplantation of kidney, thought to be a major undertaking, remain the traditional option for the treatment of major and complex ureteric lesions. Buccal mucosa, a well known tissue for urethral reconstruction, can be used safely for the repair of ureter. However, this has been reported poorly in the literature. Here we report a 59- year-old female who had a major ureteric injury by Dormia basket during ureteroscopic extraction of a 2.6 cm impacted stone at pelvi- ureteric junction. On exploration, a long anterior slit was found in the upper ureter measuring approximately 8 cm. It was successfully repaired by free buccal mucosal patch graft over a Double J stent. Thus, a major surgery was avoided. Intra venous urography at 6-month follow up demonstrated a patent ureter. Our experience is encouraging and merits wider application in complex ureteric lesion.

Peritoneal access and creation of pneumoperitoneum are the key initial steps of laparoscopic surgery. This is commonly achieved by either introducing Veress needle or by gradual dissection of all the layers of the abdominal wall and then introducing a port under direct vision. The two techniques are extremely safe, but large outcome studies have found slightly increased complications with the Veress needle. Randomized trials do not support such finding and both techniques continue to have their enthusiasts. We hereby describe an open method of initial port placement, wherein the port is introduced through the umbilical cicatrix under direct vision.

The rigid nephroscope was useful for laparoscopic bile duct exploration, particularly for large impacted stones.

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy remains the standard treatment for cholelithiasis. Ever increasing number of patients with myriad of medical illness is being treated by this technique. However, significant concern prevails among the surgical community regarding its safety in patients with cardiac co-morbidity. Patients with significant cardiac dysfunction and multiple co-morbidities were prospectively evaluated. Patients were assessed by cardiologists and anesthesiologists and laparoscopic cholecystectomy was performed. Patient demographics, details of peri-operative management and post-operative complications were studied. Between March 2005 and January 2009, 28 patients (M:F= 21:7) with mean age of 60 years (range 26-78) and having significant cardiac dysfunction had undergone laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Of these, 24 patients were in NYHA class-II, while 4 belonged to class-III. Left ventricular ejection fraction, as recorded by transthoracic echocardiography, was 20-30% in 13 (46%) patients and 30-40% in the rest 15 (54%). In addition, 13 (46%) patients had regional wall motion abnormalities, 11 (39%) patients had cardiomyopathy, 2 (7%) patients had valvular heart disease while 12 (43%) patients had prior cardiac interventions. Following laparoscopic cholecystectomy, hypertension (3), tachyarrhythmia (4) and bradycardia (1) were the commonest events encountered. One patient required laparotomy to deal with peritonitis in the immediate postoperative period and succumbed to myocardial infarction, but all other patients made an uneventful recovery. With appropriate cardiological support, laparoscopic cholecystectomy may be safely performed in patients with significant cardiac dysfunction.

A variety of foreign bodies have been inserted in to the rectum for autoeroticism. However, their presence inside the bowel lumen for prolong period might not produce serious harm to the host, and discovery of such object during evaluation of rectal symptoms is not a surprise. Here we describe a 64-year-old male patient presented with rectal symptoms, and a rectosigmoid foreign body was discovered after 35 days of self-insertion. No serious life threatening events occurred during this period. This was easily removed by trans-anal approach under anesthesia.

Primary angiosarcoma is an extremely rare and aggressive soft-tissue malignancy of endothelial cell origin that occurs most frequently in the skin and subcutaneous tissues of the extremities. Presence of this disease in the intestine as a primary or metastatic deposit is an extremely uncommon incident, and might causes diagnostic confusion with primary colonic neoplasm. We encountered epithelioid angiosarcoma of the sigmoid colon in a 59-year-old male patient who presented with occasional bleeding per rectum and had also had an angiosarcoma arising from the subcutaneous tissue of the right thigh. Retrospective review of histopathology and immunohistochemistry of the two specimens were helpful in the final diagnosis.

“Haemosuccus pancreaticus” is an unusual cause of severe upper gastrointestinal bleeding and results from rupture of splenic artery aneurysm into the pancreatic duct. More commonly, it is a pseudoaneurysm of the splenic artery which develops as sequelae of pancreatitis. However, true aneurysm of the splenic artery without pancreatitis has rarely been incriminated as the etiologic factor of this condition. Owing to the paucity of cases and limited knowledge about the disease, diagnosis as well as treatment become challenging. Here we describe a 60-year-old male presenting with severe recurrent upper gastrointestinal bleeding and abdominal pain, which, after considerable delay, was diagnosed to be due to splenic artery aneurysm. Following an unsuccessful endovascular embolisation, the patient was cured by distal pancreatectomy and ligation of aneurysm.