Surgery
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The number of international academic partnerships and global health programs is expanding rapidly worldwide. Although the benefits of such programs to visiting international partners have been well documented, the perceived impacts on host institutions in resource-limited settings have not been assessed adequately. We sought to describe the perspectives of postgraduate, Ugandan trainees toward international collaborations and to discuss how these perceptions can be used to increase the positive impact of international collaborations for the host institution. ⋯ The current perspective from the surgery and anesthesia trainees of Makerere College of Health Sciences demonstrates rich ground for leveraging international collaborations to improve training, primarily through skills workshops, specialist camps, and more visiting faculty involvement. This survey also identified potential challenges in collaborative research and ethical dilemmas that warrant further examination.
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To assess the impact of American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) participation on outcomes in gastrointestinal surgical oncology. ⋯ There was a decrease in complications over time for ACS NSQIP participants in gastrointestinal surgical oncology, but mortality did not decrease.
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Multicenter Study
Developing an argument for bundled interventions to reduce surgical site infection in colorectal surgery.
Surgical site infection (SSI) remains a costly and morbid complication after colectomy. The primary objective of this study was to investigate whether a group of perioperative care measures previously shown to be associated with reduced SSI would have an additive effect in SSI reduction. If so, this would support the use of an "SSI prevention bundle" as a quality improvement intervention. ⋯ This multi-institutional study shows that patients who received all 6 perioperative care measures attained a very low, risk-adjusted SSI rate of 2.0%. These results suggest the promise of an SSI reduction intervention for quality improvement; however, prospective research are required to confirm this finding.
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Ventral hernia repair (VHR), an increasingly common procedure, may have a greater impact on health care costs than is currently appreciated. Readmissions have the potential to further increase these costs and negatively impact patient outcomes. New national registry data allows for an in-depth look at the predictors and rates of readmission after VHR. ⋯ There is room for improvement in VHR readmission rates. Although complications are the main driver of readmission, surgeons must be aware of comorbidities that independently increase the odds of readmission, even when a complication does not occur.
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Comparative Study
Experimental development of an intra-abdominal chemohyperthermia model using a closed abdomen technique and a PRS-1.0 Combat CO2 recirculation system.
Cytoreductive surgery with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy is the best operative treatment currently available for patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis of ovarian origin. The open abdomen technique is the classic technique for hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy. We developed a closed abdomen model that improves temperature control and increases exposure of peritoneal surfaces to the drug by recirculating the perfusate. ⋯ The closed recirculation hyperthermia with intraperitoneal chemotherapy technique developed in this study is safe and feasible, and may provide a more homogeneous delivery of heated chemotherapy to the peritoneal cavity in patients with peritoneal malignancies.