Medical Treatment of Cholesterol Gallstones: Present and Future

Hydrogel scaffold with substrate elasticity mimicking physiological-niche promotes proliferation of functional keratinocytes

“…It is possible that cells sense and respond by virtue of its mechanical environment and acquire the stiffness sensitive phenotype based on integrin expression. Studies have shown that integrin α-5 expression increases 5-fold on a 10 kPa stiffness compared to 1 kPa in cancer cells and fibroblast 37,38. This indicates that for the expression of integrins, 10 kPa is the most biologically relevant stiffness.…”

Laparoscopic Treatment of Gallbladder and Common Bile Duct Stones: A Prospective Study

“…On the basis of these considerations our present policy is to consider treatment of all CBD stones mandatory, taking into account that postoperative ERCP/ES has a 10% failure rate, in which case the patient would be exposed to the risk of a second operation. As reported in the literature, in expert hands ES is associated with morbidity, mortality, and long-term complication rates that are not negligible [7][8][9]. In contrast, the open surgical supraduodenal approach is associated with few if any procedurerelated complications, with low mortality [16,17].…”

“…These complications are directly procedure-related and potentially occur in patients of any age and general condition. Moreover, long-term complications have been reported, such as stenosis in 2.6% to 6.1% of patients and recurrent CBD stones in 2.8% to 21.2% [8]. One study demonstrated that ES in patients over age 50 is associated with a greater incidence of recurrent common duct "brown" stones than is supraduodenal choledochotomy, one of the possible explanations being an increased rate of bacterial bile contamination from the duodenum [9].…”

Pharmacological Aspects and Therapeutic Effects of Ursodeoxycholic Acid

“…However, at present there is no proven correlation between UDCA dosage and cal cification [45], In a study of our own which comprised 145 patients with 10 mg UDCA 10 patients dropped out for non-medical rea sons; in the remaining 135 patients there was stone dissolution in 62.2% [46]. In 10 of the 51 non-responders (7.4%) we observed stone calcification.…”

“…Mean treatment time with UDCA amounts till dissolution to 16-19 months [46], Since this time span is relatively long, since the mean dissolution rate of 60% should be improved and since there is stone calcification in 10%, there have been at tempts to improve the results by changing the administration time of UDCA, by means of UDCA with and without special diet, by combination of UDCA with CDCA, and by the simultaneous administration of UDCA with the amino acid taurine.…”