ABSTRACT
Objective: To determine the nature of adrenal pathology in patients undergoing adrenalectomy in Saudi Arabia over the last decade and compare it with the literature. We compared perioperative outcomes between minimally invasive adrenalectomy (MIA) and open adrenalectomy (OA). Methods: This retrospective study included patients who underwent adrenalectomy at five tertiary care centers in Saudi Arabia from 2010 to 2020. We collected patients' baseline and perioperative characteristics and detailed hormonal evaluation of adrenal masses. Results: Among 160 patients (mean age 44 ± 14.5 years; mean BMI 29.17 ± 5.96 kg/m2), 84 (51.5 %) were men and 51.5 % had left-sided adrenal masses. The mean tumor size was 6.1 ± 4.2 (1.0-19.5) cm, including 60 (37.5 %) incidentalomas and 65 (40.6 %) functioning masses. Histopathology revealed 74 (46.2 %) adenomas and 24 (15 %) cancers or metastases from other primary organs; 20 %, 8.8 %, and 2.5 % of patients had pheochromocytoma, myelolipoma, and 2.5 % ganglioneuroblastoma, respectively. MIA and OA were performed in 135 (84.4 %) and 21 (15.6 %) patients, respectively. Adrenalectomy was increasingly performed over three equal periods in the last decade (17.5 % vs 34.4 % vs 48.1 %), with increasing numbers of MIAs to replace OAs. OA patients had larger tumors and needed blood transfusion more frequently (47.6 % vs 10.8 %, p< 0.001). MIA was significantly associated with shorter operative time, shorter length of stay, and less blood loss. Postoperative complications occurred in 10 (6.2 %) patients and were significantly higher for OA (24 % vs 3.0 %, p< 0.001). Conclusions: The majority of adrenal masses are benign. Herein, the observed functional and perioperative outcomes were comparable to those of available meta-analyses.
ABSTRACT
Objectives: The present study explores how young urologists in Saudi Arabia are adopting social media as a learning tool and how this new development is shaping as far as learning is concerned. Methods: A 18-item online survey via survemonkey.com was conducted. The survey was distributed through email in Saudi Arabia. The survey targeted young urologists and urology residents. The survey design and distribution was performed according to CHERRIES guidelines. Due to the quantitative nature of study data, SPSS software was used to analyze collected data. Results: A total of 104 young Saudi urologists responded to our survey. Participants were mostly familiar with the use of Twitter (86%), followed closely by YouTube (82%) and then Snapchat and Instagram (73% and 63%, respectively), a large portion (72%) of participants believe that social media has a moderate-to-high influence on their urology knowledge, YouTube was by far the most used source to watch and understand surgical skills, followed by reference books and websites, respectively. Conclusion: Social media has contributed to the spread of medical information among urology community and outside the urology community as well, with easier spread of medical knowledge to all involved by using social media, an extensive impact is achieved to both physicians and patients as well. For future work, this study should be conducted again, to monitor and compare the progression of usage among urologists.
