The environmental impact of surgical telemedicine: life cycle assessment of virtual vs. in-person preoperative evaluations for benign foregut disease.

BACKGROUND: Health care accounts for almost 10% of the United States' greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for a loss of 470,000 disability-adjusted life years based on the health effects of climate change. Telemedicine has the potential to decrease health care's carbon footprint by reducing patient travel and clinic-related emissions. At our institution, telemedicine visits for evaluation of benign foregut disease were implemented for patient care during the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to estimate the environmental impact of telemedicine usage for these clinic encounters. METHODS: We used life cycle assessment (LCA) to compare greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for an in-person and a telemedicine visit. For in-person visits, travel distances to clinic were retrospectively assessed from 2020 visits as a representative sample, and prospective data were gathered on materials and processes related to in-person clinic visits. Prospective data on the length of telemedicine encounters were collected and environmental impact was calculated for equipment and internet usage. Upper and lower bounds scenarios for emissions were generated for each type of visit. RESULTS: For in-person visits, 145 patient travel distances were recorded with a median [IQR] distance travel distance of 29.5 [13.7, 85.1] miles resulting in 38.22-39.61 carbon dioxide equivalents (kgCO2-eq) emitted. For telemedicine visits, the mean (SD) visit time was 40.6 (17.1) min. Telemedicine GHG emissions ranged from 2.26 to 2.99 kgCO2-eq depending on the device used. An in-person visit resulted in 25 times more GHG emissions compared to a telemedicine visit (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Telemedicine has the potential to decrease health care's carbon footprint. Policy changes to facilitate telemedicine use are needed, as well as increased awareness of potential disparities of and barriers to telemedicine use. Moving toward telemedicine preoperative evaluations in appropriate surgical populations is a purposeful step toward actively addressing our role in health care's large carbon footprint.

COVID-19-induced Esophageal Necrosis Requiring Emergent Total Esophagectomy in a Vaccinated Patient.

Acute esophageal necrosis may be a potential complication of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). COVID-19 has been associated with a variety of sequelae, including acute respiratory distress syndrome, myocarditis, and thromboembolic events. Here, we present a case of a 43-year-old male who was admitted for acute necrotizing pancreatitis and found to have COVID-19 pneumonia. He subsequently developed acute esophageal necrosis requiring a total esophagectomy. Currently, there are at least five other reported cases of esophageal necrosis with concomitant COVID-19 infection. This case is the first requiring esophagectomy. Future studies may establish esophageal necrosis as a known complication of COVID-19.

Rapid Generation of Pulmonary Organoids from Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells by Co-Culturing Endodermal and Mesodermal Progenitors for Pulmonary Disease Modelling.

Differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells to a range of target cell types is ubiquitous in monolayer culture. To further improve the phenotype of the cells produced, 3D organoid culture is becoming increasingly prevalent. Mature organoids typically require the involvement of cells from multiple germ layers. The aim of this study was to produce pulmonary organoids from defined endodermal and mesodermal progenitors. Endodermal and mesodermal progenitors were differentiated from iPSCs and then combined in 3D Matrigel hydrogels and differentiated for a further 14 days to produce pulmonary organoids. The organoids expressed a range of pulmonary cell markers such as SPA, SPB, SPC, AQP5 and T1α. Furthermore, the organoids expressed ACE2 capable of binding SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins, demonstrating the physiological relevance of the organoids produced. This study presented a rapid production of pulmonary organoids using a multi-germ-layer approach that could be used for studying respiratory-related human conditions.

A fast tract to foregut surgery: Pandemic-driven protocol development.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 has overwhelmed many health care systems which has affected the landscape of elective surgery. A pandemic driven protocol was developed to perform foregut surgeries as a Same Day Surgery (SDS) discharge for all comers to reduce resource utilization. METHODS: Retrospective review of all patients who underwent elective laparoscopic foregut surgery (hiatal hernia, paraesophageal hernia, heller myotomy, and fundoplication) from 8/1/2020-1/31/2022 by a single surgeon after the implementation of a SDS protocol. Patients were compared to a pre-pandemic cohort, from 8/1/2019-4/30/2020, when overnight admission was standard practice. RESULTS: There were 36 pre-pandemic patients, and 41 pandemic patients successfully discharged the same day of surgery. We failed to detect a statistically significant difference between the two groups regarding 30-day ED visit rate (p-value of 0.4557) and 30-day readmission rate (p-value of 0.6790). CONCLUSION: The creation of a SDS protocol for foregut surgery is a safe way to deliver much needed care to the community while decreasing resource utilization.

Effectiveness of Telehealth in Meeting Needs of Benign Foregut Patients

INTRODUCTION: Telehealth visits became a staple in surgical practice in the setting of COVID-19. The objective of this study is to assess benign foregut patient satisfaction and perceived cost savings with use of telehealth visits. METHOD(S): This is a single academic center prospective study of benign foregut patients evaluated for routine postoperative care by a telehealth visit over a 1-year period. Patients who agreed to participate completed a survey assessing their experience with telehealth. RESULT(S): There were 19 patients (13 phone, 6 virtual) ages 21 to 74 years (male:female 5:14) included. A total of 84% underwent hiatal hernia repair, and others underwent operation for achalasia, feeding access, gastric pacemaker, and choledocholithiasis (average length-ofstay 3.5 days, range 0 to 13). The majority (84.2%) reported a high overall satisfaction score (>4/5, range 3 to 5). Of these patients, 94.7% agreed/strongly agreed that their provider was able to adequately assess their problem, that their concerns were addressed, and that they would participate in future telehealth visits. The average time to drive to a hypothetical in-person appointment was 180 minutes (range 20 to 480 minutes). When comparing telehealth with hypothetical in-person visits, no patients had to take time off work for telehealth vs 15.8% would for in-person visits. A total of 21% would need a family member to take time off for in-person visit;of those, 75% would have suffered wage loss;36.8% and 42.1% would require overnight accommodation and meal costs for hypothetical in-person visits, respectively (travel time range 180 to 480 minutes). CONCLUSION(S): Postoperative benign foregut patients were very satisfied with telehealth care with time and cost-saving benefits reported for those traveling long distances for in-person visits.

IMPACT OF GERD ON PATIENTS UNDERGOING LUNG TRANSPLANTION FOR COVID-19: A SINGLE INSTITUTION RETROSPECTIVE STUDY

Background: Optimizing management of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is important to preserve graft function after lung transplantation as patients with GERD are at higher risk of rejection. Patients with COVID-19 associated respiratory failure undergoing lung transplantation is an emerging subset of patients in which GERD pre- or post-transplant is not well characterized. Aim: To evaluate the prevalence and adverse effects of GERD both pre- and post-transplant in patients undergoing lung transplantation for severe COVID-19 infection. Methods: A retrospective review was conducted at a single academic medical center with a large multi-organ transplant program. All patients undergoing lung transplant due to COVID-19 from 2020-2021 were included in the study, with attention to pre- and post-operative physiological testing for GERD. Results: Seventeen patients were identified who had undergone lung transplant for COVID-19. All patients were male;52.9% (9/17) were Hispanic, 35.3% (6/17) Caucasian and 11.8% (2/17) Black. Median age was 50 (24- 70 years) with median time to transplant from documented infection of 131 days. A prehospitalization GERD diagnosis was found in 29.4% (5/17) patients, and two patients (11.8%) were taking prescribed proton-pump inhibitor (PPI) prior to their COVID-19 associated hospitalization. No patient underwent pre-transplant GERD testing, although three patients did undergo upper endoscopy for GI bleeding prior to transplant. Post-transplant, all patients were immediately treated with PPI per institutional protocol. 70.5% (12/17) patients reported post-transplant foregut symptoms including heartburn, regurgitation, dysphagia, early satiety, abdominal bloating/cramping, nausea and vomiting. All 17 patients had at least one symptomdriven foregut study such as a gastric emptying study, barium esophagram, upper endoscopy, esophageal manometry or pH testing. Three patients were referred for anti-reflux surgery (ARS) based on results of testing, including delayed gastric emptying, abnormal pH testing and bronchoscopy findings concerning for aspiration pneumonia. All three underwent Toupet fundoplication with or without hiatal hernia repair;one was performed early (< 3 mo) posttransplant, two occurred late (> 6 mo), and none had complications or symptom-based recurrence of reflux. Discussion: In this large single-center series of COVID-19 associated respiratory failure and lung transplant, pre-operative reflux testing could not be performed;however, post-transplant GERD symptoms were still routinely assessed and evaluated, prompting management with ARS in a small subset of patients, both early and late posttransplant, with resolution of GERD symptoms. Long-term outcomes of this unique group and comparison with others requiring transplant will necessitate further investigation to assess impact of GERD on allograft dysfunction.

Rare case of cystic schwannoma presenting as right upper lobe lung cyst

Background: Schwannomaare benign tumors arising from Schwann cells of nerve root sheaths. Schwannomasare mostly solid / heterogeneous solid tumours, rarely cystic. Presentation of cystic schwannomainthorax is extremely rare. Case Study: A 62-year-old female came to our hospital withthe complaint of right sided chest pain for 2 months, which is dull, non-radiating. She had history of fever 4 months back, diagnosed to have covid and took treatment at home. Chest x-ray showed a homogenous opacity in the right upper lobe extending up to 1stintercostal space. Ct reported well-defined thick-walled cyst, hypodensewith central low attenuation, forming acute angles with lung parenchyma in apical segments of right upper lobe towards mediastinum. Mild perilesional atelectasis is seen.On contrast, cyst is non enhancing. Patient is evaluated for the possibilities of Foregut duplication cyst, Hydatidcyst, Neoplasm. Endoscopic ultrasonography revealed a 5cms×5cms cyst, which is not communicating, infiltrating to esophagus. Patient was referred to ctvswhere excision of cyst is done by right thoracotomy .A 6cms×6cms×2cms unilocularcyst with wall thickness ranging from 0.1- 0.4cms. Its outer surface is congested, inner surface showed dark-brown hemorrhagic contents. Histopathological examination revealed cystic schwannoma. Discussion: Schwannomasare mostly benign in nature .Treatment includes excision of Bronchogenic cyst, Brachial cyst, neurogenic tumours, apical lung tumour, hydatid cyst, foregut duplication cyst are to be considered as differential diagnosis. It is important to consider cystic schwannomasin the differential diagnosis of thoracic cystsince the best surgical outcome is strongly related to earlier diagnosis and total resection of the lesion.