Davide Abed El Rahman

Giant multilocular prostatic cystadenomas (GMPC) are very rare benign tumors that originate from the prostate with extensive spread into the pelvis. The lesion may present as large abdominal mass causing obstructive voiding dysfunction and usually not invading adjacent structures. All of the previously reported patients with GMPC underwent open surgery. Although the natural history of prostatic cystadenoma remains unknown, complete surgical excision may not always be necessary. We report the case of a 74-year-old male who presented a retrovesical recurrence of prostatic cystoadenoma after 16 years, treated with a laparoscopic approach. To our knowledge this is the first case of laparoscopic management of GMPC. In this article we review the current literature about this rare tumor and discuss the diagnostic and management dilemmas posed by this rare pathologic condition. We believe that physicians should at least be aware of the existence of this disease in the differential diagnosis of pelvic cavity tumours and, considering the benignity of GMPC, they should propose -as first- a minimally invasive approach.

Bladder urothelial carcinoma is typically a disease of older individuals and rarely occurs below the age of 40 years. There is debate and uncertainty in the literature regarding the clinicopathologic and prognostic characteristics of bladder urothelial neoplasms in younger patients compared with older patients, although no consistent age criteria have been used to define "younger" age group categories. We report on a 16 years old girl with transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder with a partial inverted growth pattern who presented with gross hematuria. Ultrasonography revealed a papillary lesion in the bladder; cystoscopic evaluation showed a 15 mm papillary lesion with a thick stalk located in the left bladder wall. Pathologic evaluation of the specimen was reported as “low grade transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder with a partial inverted growth pattern”.

We report the case of a 66 years old woman with histological diagnosis of muscle-invasive high grade transitional cell carcinoma and clinical diagnosis (TC) of metastatic disease treated with a platinum based combination chemotherapy obtaining a pathologic complete response. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy for bladder cancer even with its limitations regarding patients selection, current development of surgical technique and current chemotherapy combination has shown to improve overall survival by 5-7% at 5 years and should be considered in muscle invasive bladder cancer, irrespective of definitive treatment.

Emphysematous pyelonephritis is a rare and severe renal parenchyma necrotizing infection visible just in diabetic patients which results in gas presence--probably produced through the glucose fermentation process--in the collecting system, renal parenchyma and perirenal tissue. We present a case of a not known diabetic female patient with emphysematous pyelonephritis of the left kidney and emphysematous pyelitis of the controlateral kidney.

Objectives: α-blockers are a group of α-adrenoceptor antagonists used by urologists to treat lower urinary tract symptoms suggestive of benign prostatic hyperplasia. Recent studies have suggested that these drugs – tamsulosin in particular – are involved in the development of iris complications during phacoemulsification. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of α-blockers – especially tamsulosin – on pupil diameter. Materials and Methods: We measured the photopic, mesopic and post-dilatation pupil diameters in both eyes of 24 patients (46 eyes in total), 16 of them treated with α-blockers and 8 of them (16 eyes in total) not treated with any drugs (controls). Results: All patients treated with tamsulosin showed minor photopic, mesopic and post-dilatation diameters compared to controls. Patients treated with other α-blockers did not show any difference compared to controls. Conclusions: Even if a small number of eyes was evaluated, our study shows that tamsulosin - through its selective effect on α1A receptors - is the most involved drug in the Intraoperative Floppy Iris Syndrome.