Background and Objectives: Sarcopenia is a recognized prognostic factor for both complications and survival in cancer patients. This study aims to analyze the relationship between sarcopenia measured by psoas muscle index on computer tomography scans and the presence of postoperative complications in colorectal cancer surgery. Materials and Methods: In a prospective study we recorded data from 51 patients who underwent colorectal cancer surgery in the Mures County Clinical Hospital, Romania. Total psoas muscle area and psoas density were measured at the level of the third lumbal vertebra (L3) for further index calculation. We also evaluated the general characteristics and laboratory analyses to obtain more information about status of the patients. Short-term postoperative complications were scored according to the Clavien-Dindo classification. Results: The majority of the 51 patients were male (61%) and the median age was 65 years. More than half of the cancer was located in the rectum (56.9%), a quarter in the right colon (25.5%), the rest in the sigmoid (11.8%), and the left colon (5.9%). Twenty-one patients (41.2%) developed a complication, five (9.8%) of these were Clavien-Dindo grade 3, 4 or 5 (high grade) and sixteen (31.3%) grade 1 or 2 (low grade). The low- and high-grade groups showed a significantly lower right psoas muscle area, left psoas muscle area, total psoas muscle area, and psoas muscle index (p < 0.001 in all cases). Among laboratory analyses, a significantly lower perioperative hematocrit, hemoglobin, and albumin level were found in patients who developed complications. Furthermore we observed that an elevated serum C-reactive protein level was associated with a higher grade of complication (p < 0.043). Conclusions: The psoas muscle index (PMI) influence on the postoperative outcome is an important factor in our single center prospective study and it appears to be a good overall predictor in colorectal surgery. A lower PMI is directly associated with a low or high grade complication by Clavien-Dindo classification. Perioperative inflammatory and nutritional status evidenced by serum C-reactive protein (CRP) and albumin level influences the presence of postoperative complications.

The primary objective of this study was to identify preoperative factors that could be associated with positive resection margins. We also tried to analyze the local recurrence and overall survival in patients who received conservative treatment for early-stage breast cancer and correlate these parameters with preoperative factors. A retrospective examination was conducted on the medical records and pathological reports of 143 patients who underwent breast-conserving surgery (BCS) for breast cancer in our department from 2009 to 2017. Postoperative outcomes were assessed through phone contact and statistical analyses, including GraphPad Prism, and Fisher’s exact test, the Chi-square test, and the log-rank test were employed. The results revealed positive resection margins in 7.69% (11 cases) of the 143 patients, with an overall mortality rate of 16.66% for those with positive margins and 6.59% for those with negative margins. Statistical analysis indicated no significant differences in the overall (p = 0.5) or specific (p = 0.53) survival between the positive and negative margin groups. The positive margins were significantly associated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (p < 0.0001) and the presence of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) (p = 0.01). Among the analyzed factors, two out of sixteen were significantly linked to positive resection margins in BCS, emphasizing their importance in surgical management planning for early-stage breast cancer.

Introduction: The creation of an abdominal stoma is a common procedure performed by surgeons as a part of the treatment for benign and malignant conditions in general surgery. Stoma formation is simple, but sometimes the associated postoperative complications have an impact on the patients’ physical and psychological state. The majority of complications do not require reoperation, but when it is indicated, we have to assess the most appropriate option for the patient. Material and Methods: We conducted a retrospective study in a single surgical center, the Department of Surgery, Mureș County Hospital, Târgu Mureș, Romania, using data from patients who have been admitted under elective conditions for stoma-related complications between 2005 and 2019. Results: A total number of 877 ostomies (653 colostomies and 224 ileostomies) were performed, and 157 patients (17.9%) developed some type of stoma complication and required surgical intervention. The mean age was 64.5 ± 2.1 years, with a male-female ratio of 1.3 to 1. The leading comorbidities included cardiovascular disease (52.2% of cases), obesity (22.2%), and diabetes (18.4%). Parastomal hernia was the most frequent complication (47.5% of cases), followed by stoma prolapse (23.4%), parastomal stenosis (20.3%), and parastomal infection (8.2%). There was an association between age and the type of complication: parastomal hernia, stoma prolapse, and stenosis were more frequent in the elderly; parastomal infection was more prevalent in young patients. A longer hospital stay was observed in case of parastomal hernia. Conclusions: Stoma formation is associated with significant morbidity. Typically, the complications appear in the elderly. Conservative treatment is essential, but some of the late complications, such as parastomal hernia, stoma stenosis, stoma prolapse, and parastomal infection, require a surgical solution. Parastomal hernias are the most common complications, frequently associated with comorbidities and prolonged hospitalization.

Objective: To evaluate and demonstrate the accuracy of fine-needle aspiration (FNA) in thyroid lesions in our department and to highlight probable causes of errors leading to unsatisfactory sampling, which may depend on the characteristics of the nodule. Methods: This is a retrospective study conducted on 319 diagnosed cases of thyroid nodules referred to the Surgery Unit of Puls hospital, Tîrgu Mureș in the January 2014 – December 2015 period, who underwent fine-needle aspiration. Histological examination was considered to be the gold standard; therefore we compared the cytological diagnosis with the histological one. Results: Of the 319 cases, 289 (90.6%) were female and 30 (9.4%) male patients; 210 cases (69.3%) were interpreted as benign, 46 cases (15.2%) as follicular lesion of undetermined significance, 4 cases (1.3%) as suspect for malignancy, 1 case (0.3%) as malignant sampling, and 42 cases (13.9%) as unsatisfactory. We compared the results of fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) with the corresponding histopathological results (49 in total). FNAC achieved a sensitivity of 76.47%, a specificity of 83.1%, a positive predictive value of 35.1%, a negative predictive value of 96.7%, a false positive rate of 16.9%, a false negative rate of 23%, and an overall accuracy of 82.3%. Conclusions: The results of our study demonstrate the accuracy of the FNA technique in the first-line diagnosis of thyroid nodules.

Introduction: This study aimed to evaluate the resistance of anastomoses to mechanical traction in an ex vivo biomechanical experiment, to determine the most resistant manual suture for restoring digestive tract continuity after various types of gastric resection for cancer. Materials and methods: The tensile strength of different types of anastomoses was compared ex vivo using porcine esophagus, stomach, and small intestine. The test setup included a tensile testing device, which applied a controlled force on the anastomoses until they broke, which was recorded for each type of anastomosis and was expressed in N. Data processing and statistical analysis were performed in the GraphPad Prism program, using a paired T-test and ANOVA test. We considered the p-value 0.05 to be statistically significant. Results: Double-layer gastrojejunal (Roux-en-Y) and end-to-end esophagojejunal anastomosis presented the highest tensile strength. Double-layer anastomoses showed significantly higher tensile strength compared to monoplane ones. The results suggest that the double-layer suture technique offers better mechanical stability, which may reduce the risk of postoperative complications. Conclusions: Biplane anastomoses after gastric resections may reduce postoperative complications and improve patient outcomes.

Background: Lymph node status in gastric cancer is known as an independent prognostic factor that guides the surgical and oncological treatment and independently influences long-term survival. Several studies suggest that the lymph node ratio has a greater importance in survival than the number of metastatic lymph nodes. Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical and morphological factors that can influence the survival of gastric cancer patients, with an emphasis on nodal status and the lymph node ratio. Material and methods: We conducted a retrospective study in which 303 patients with gastric cancer admitted to the Department of Surgery of the Mureș County Hospital between 2008 and 2018 were screened for study enrolment. Data were obtained from the records of the department and from the histopathological reports. The examined variables included: age, gender, tumor localization, T stage, histological type, grade of differentiation, surgical procedure, lympho-vascular invasion, excised lymph nodes, metastatic lymph nodes, lymph node ratio. After screening, the study included a total number of 100 patients, for which follow-up data was available. Results: The mean age of the study population was 66.43 ± 10 years, and 71% were males. The average survival period was 21.42 months. Statistical analysis showed that the localization of the tumor (p = 0.021), vascular invasion (p ---lt---0.001), T (p = 0.004) and N (p ---lt---0.001) stages, type of surgery (partial gastrectomy 59% vs. total gastrectomy 41%, p = 0.005), as well as the lymph node ratio (p ---lt---0.001) were prognostic factors for survival in patients with gastric cancer undergoing surgical therapy. Conclusions: The survival of gastric cancer patients is significantly influenced by tumor localization, T stage, vascular invasion, type of surgery, N stage and the lymph node ratio based on univariate analysis. Also, the lymph node ratio proved to be an independent prognostic factor for survival.