Trend of minimally invasive and open surgery experience of general surgery residents: Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education general surgery case log in Thailand.

Purpose: Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) offers patients several benefits, such as smaller incisions, and fast recovery times. General surgery residents should be trained in both open and MIS. We aimed to examine the trends of minimally invasive and open procedures performed by general surgery residents in Thailand. Methods: A retrospective review of the Royal College of Surgeons of Thailand and Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education general surgery case logs from 2007 to 2018 was performed for common open and laparoscopic general surgery operations. The data were grouped by three time periods, which were 2007-2010, 2011-2014, and 2015-2018, and analyzed to explore changes in the operative trends. Results: For Thai residents, the mean number of laparoscopic operations per person per year increased from 5.97 to 9.36 (56.78% increase) and open increased from 20.02 to 27.16 (35.67% increase). There was a significant increase in the average number of minimally invasive procedures performed among cholecystectomy (5.83, 6.57, 8.10; p < 0.001) and inguinal hernia repair (0.33, 0.35, 0.66; p < 0.001). Compared to general surgery residents in the United States, Thai residents had more experience with open appendectomy, but significantly less experience with all other operations/procedures. Conclusion: The number of open and minimally invasive procedures performed or assisted by Thai general surgery residents has slowly increased, but generally lags behind residents in the United States. The Thai education program must be updated to improve residents' technical skills in open and laparoscopic surgery to remain competitive with their global partners.

Adaptation to Open-Book Online Examination During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

INTRODUCTION: COVID-19 altered medical education systems worldwide as many medical schools quickly changed to online assessment systems. However, the feasibility of online assessment and how it compares to traditional examinations is unclear. METHODS: We compared 4th year medical students' online surgery clerkship assessment scores to the traditional written examinations. The percent of correct scores using online open-book examination was compared to the results of the traditional closed-book examination in the previous three rotations. Additional correlation between grade point average(GPA) and examination performance were reviewed. RESULTS: Compared with the traditional groups, medical students who took the online, open-book examination had a significantly higher mean score in both MCQ(85.21 vs. 77.36, 72.43, 83.00, p<0.001) and essay examinations (187.36 vs. 158.77, 152.17, 152.29, p<0.001), but a significantly lower mean score in short answer examination (60.09 vs. 66.79, 67.73, 64.82, p<0.001). The online open-book examination group had a significantly lower correlation between the essay score and their GPA than the previous traditional groups (z=2.81 p=0.005, z=2.23 p=0.026, z=2.19 p=0.029). CONCLUSION: Although an online, open-book examination was feasible during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study indicates that mean scores are significantly different which has important implications regarding grading and standard setting. More research is required to assess other effects of this new assessment on long-term knowledge retention and application.

The Use of Hypochlorous Acid Lavage to Treat Infected Cavity Wounds.

Managing cavity wounds that cannot be cleaned using standard irrigating solution is challenging. An immunocompromised patient with a horseshoe perianal abscess was selected to represent a heavy infection in cavity wounds. Diluted povidone-iodine was initially used to lavage the wounds, but the fever persisted and the irrigation was painful. Hypochlorous acid was then used to irrigate the wound. One day after administration of the hypochlorous acid, the fever began to subside, suggesting that this solution was able to adequately destroy the infecting microorganisms. The patient rated his pain during this procedure as 2/10. The infection had cleared within 2 weeks, and a swab culture found no microbial growth. The wound volume was reduced by more than 90% after 5 weeks, and final wound closure was achieved after 6 weeks. By comparison, another patient with a horseshoe perianal abscess who underwent traditional irrigation with diluted povidone-iodine and wet-to-dry dressing faced similar problems, but the fever in this case did not subside, and the wound became more complicated. He complained of pain during the irrigation with diluted povidone-iodine, giving the procedure a pain score of 10/10. Wound care was also difficult due to fecal contamination. As a result, the patient had to undergo colostomy to divert feces to the abdomen, thus preventing it from contaminating the wound. Time to final wound closure was 10 weeks. These cases illustrate the effectiveness of hypochlorous acid in dealing with infection in wound cavities.

Factors associated with patient satisfaction in laparoscopic adrenalectomy.

Laparoscopic adrenalectomy a treatment that is recommended for patients with adrenal adenoma and has been shown to lead to a 94% biochemical remission rate of aldosterone as well as improvements to quality of life in five domains of the SF-36. This method is also associated with high rates of patient satisfaction. However, there is little information available on the factors associated with patient satisfaction in cases of laparoscopic adrenalectomy. This study aimed to evaluate these factors in patients with Conn's syndrome who underwent laparoscopic adrenalectomy. This study was based on a survey and was conducted at Srinagarind Hospital at the Khon Kaen University Faculty of Medicine in Thailand. The inclusion criteria were that patients were between 15 and 60 years of age, had been diagnosed with adrenal gland tumors, and had undergone trnasperitoneal laparoscopic adrenalectomy. All eligible patients were asked to fill out a self-report questionnaire in which they rated their satisfaction (out of 10) and factors associated with their level of satisfaction in the areas of clinical treatment and scarring. There were 44 patients who participated in the study. The average (SD) age of all patients was 47.10 (10.90) years. The average overall satisfaction scores for the surgery and with regard to scarring post surgery were 9.47 (1.15) and 8.11 (2.21), respectively. Only the presence of headaches was an independent factor associated with the overall satisfaction, with a coefficient of -0.29 (p value 0.001). Only age was significantly predictive of overall satisfaction with regard to scarring with a coefficient of 0.05 and p value of 0.046. In conclusion, the presence of headaches was related to overall satisfaction and age was associated with satisfaction with regard to scarring in patients Conn's syndrome who underwent laparoscopic adrenalectomy.

Laparoscopic Adrenalectomy: 6 Years Experience in Srinagarind Hospital.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Laparoscopic adrenalectomy has become the procedure of choice to treat benign functioning and non-functioning adrenal tumors. This study aims to present our single unit experience of laparoscopic adrenalectomy. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Review of all recorded clinical data was performed in patients who underwent laparoscopic adrenalectomy for adrenal neoplasm, between January 2008 and December 2013 in Srinagarind Hospital. Patients' demographic data, lesion size, operation time, blood loss, conversion rate, length of postoperative stay, morbidity and mortality were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: Forty-six adrenalectomy were done. 11 men and 35 women, with a mean age of 44 years (range 20-69) were enrolled. A right adrenal gland tumor in 14 cases (30.43%) and left adrenal gland tumor in 32 cases (69.57%). Overall mean operative time was 97 minutes and mean blood loss was 61.73 ml. Conversion to open surgery was necessary in 6 of 46 patients (13.04%). Mean length of post operative hospital stay of conversion to open surgery group (9.83 days) was longer than laparoscopic group (4.67 days) significantly p<0.05 (95% CI: -7.28 to -3.03). Tumor mean size was of 2.6 cm and most was cortical adenoma. Morbidity rate was 2.17% and no mortality. CONCLUSION: Laparoscopic adrenalectomy is the procedure of choice for benign adrenal gland tumor. Current review confirms that it has been a safe and feasible procedure associated with minimal morbidity. Surgical skill and laparoscopic experience are important factors to achieve consistently good outcomes.