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INTRODUCTION: By providing a structured forum to exchange information and ideas, multidisciplinary team meetings improve working relationships, expedite investigations, promote evidence-based treatment, and ultimately improve clinical outcomes. METHODS: This discursive paper reports the introduction of a multidisciplinary team approach to manage hepatobiliary diseases in Jamaica, focusing on the challenges encountered and the methods used to overcome these obstacles. CONCLUSION: Despite multiple challenges in resource-limited environments, a multidisciplinary team approach can be incorporated into clinical practice in developing nations. Policy makers should make it a priority to support clinical, operational, and governance aspects of the multidisciplinary teams.
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Sarcoidosis is a chronic granulomatous disease of unknown aetiology, which may involve any organ system. It most commonly occurs in adults with childhood involvement being rare. Central nervous system involvement is seen in up to 25% and typically involves meningeal disease resulting in multiple cranial neuropathies. Other common clinical findings include seizures, headache, dementia, and pituitary dysfunction. Imaging plays a central role in the diagnosis with typical findings including pachymeningeal and leptomeningeal enhancing lesions. Other imaging findings include lacunar and major territory infarcts, hypothalamic and infundibular thickening, hydrocephalus, and cranial nerve enhancement. We present a case of an eight-year-old male patient with progressive headache, visual disturbance, unilateral sensory hearing loss, and multiple cranial neuropathies. Imaging findings demonstrated the classic pachymeningeal and leptomeningeal enhancement along much of the skull base, as well as enhancement of the right and left second and eighth cranial nerves. Extensive inflammatory changes were noted in the temporal bones and paranasal sinuses. There was also enhancement of the right and left labyrinths. Sinus biopsy confirmed sarcoidosis. We present the first case to our knowledge of sarcoid labyrinthitis.
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Although surgical drainage of pancreatic pseudocysts has been superseded by less invasive options, the requirement for specialized equipment, technical expertise, and consumables limits the options available in low resource settings. We describe the challenges experienced during endoscopic transmural drainage in a low resource setting and the methods used to overcome these barriers. Despite operating in a low resource environment, endoscopic drainage of pancreatic pseudocysts can be incorporated into our armamentarium with minimal change to the existing hardware. Careful patient selection by a dedicated multidisciplinary team should be observed in order to achieve good outcomes.
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In the classic description of hepatic arterial supply, the common hepatic artery originates from the coeliac trunk. However, there are numerous variations to this classic pattern. We report a rare variant pattern of hepatic arterial supply and discuss the clinical significance of this variation.
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INTRODUCTION: The commonest variation to the classic anatomic description of renal arterial supply is the presence of accessory renal arteries. The incidence varies widely according to ethnicity. There is no data on the prevalence of these anomalies in persons of Caribbean ethnicity. METHODS: All CT scans done over two years from July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2012 were retrospectively evaluated. The anatomy of the renal arterial supply was reported from these studies and the anatomy of accessory renal arteries was documented. RESULTS: There were 302 CT scans evaluated and accessory renal arteries were present in 109/302 (36.1%) CT scans, 95% confidence interval 30.6%, 41.4%. There were 71/309 (23.5%) patients with accessory arteries on the left and 54/309 (17.9%) had them on the right (p 0.087). Of these, 16 (14.7%) patients had bilateral accessory renal arteries present. The most common origin for the accessory arteries was the abdominal aorta in 108 (99.1%) cases and in 1 case the accessory artery arose from the coeliac trunk. There were 80 left sided accessory renal arteries: 17 (21.3%) upper polar and 27 (33.8%) lower polar arteries. Of 62 right sided accessory arteries, 14 (22.6%) were upper polar and 26 (42%) were lower polar arteries. CONCLUSION: This is the first population-based report of anatomic anomalies in renal arterial supply in a Caribbean population. These are important findings that may affect vascular and urologic procedures on persons of Caribbean ethnicity.