Outcomes After Laparoscopic Transabdominal Pre-Peritoneal Repair (TAPP) For Groin Hernia In A Single Consultant Series.

AIM: TAPP repair is an established minimally invasive approach for groin hernia repair. The objective of this study was to report post-operative outcomes after TAPP repair in a single surgeon series and benchmark these against reported outcomes in the literature. METHODS: All patients who had an elective or emergency TAPP repair of a groin hernia from September 2016 to March 2020 in a district general hospital were retrospectively analysed from the electronic care record (ECR) for post-operative morbidity, re-admission, recurrence and length of hospital stay. The primary outcome of interest, chronic post-operative pain, was assessed via telephone interviews using the European Registry for Abdominal Wall Hernias Quality of Life (EuraHS-QoL) questionnaire. RESULTS: 164 patients, incorporating 190 hernia repairs were included. 155 (94.5%) were men and 9 (5.5%) were women. The median age was 51 (range: 20-81). 160 (97.6%) patients had an elective repair and 4 (2.4%) had an emergency repair. 157 (95.7%) patients underwent a primary inguinal hernia repair, of which 26 (15.8%) had a bilateral inguinal hernia repair. 7 (4.3%) patients had a femoral hernia repair. All procedures were performed by a single consultant surgeon. One emergency patient required conversion to open to allow for resection of ischaemic small bowel, however, the hernia itself was repaired laparoscopically. 94 (57.3%) patients were successfully contacted to provide EuraHS-QoL scores. 13/94 patients (13.8%) complained of chronic pain at rest on an average follow-up of 32.7 months (range: 16-43m). 2/94 (2.1%) patients had mild pain, 9/94 (9.6%) had moderate pain and 2/94 (2.1%) patients had severe pain at rest. 131 (79.9%) TAPP repairs were performed as day case procedures. Median length of stay in those patients who were not day cases was 1 day (range=1-11 days). Post-op morbidity rate was 7.9% (n=13), however, these were minor complications (Clavien-Dindo I/II). Incidence of seroma and haematoma was 1.8% (n=3) each. Re-admission rate was 3% (n=5). Mean follow-up of patients was 21 months (SD 12.6m, range=1-43m). Two patients (1.2%) had a recurrent groin hernia during this time period and one patient (0.6%) had a port site hernia. CONCLUSION: The outcomes of chronic post-operative pain and rate of recurrence were comparable to those reported in the literature. Re-admission rate was low and there were no major complications. The majority of patients were performed as a day case.

Management of Acute Appendicitis During the COVID-19 Pandemic is Significantly Different: A Retrospective Single UK Hospital Study.

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a change in the delivery of acute and emergency surgical services. With emphasis on reducing unnecessary operative intervention and performing more CT scans, there has been a shift in managing acute appendicitis conservatively. We evaluate the impact of this shift on the management of acute appendicitis. METHODS: A single UK centre retrospective study evaluating patients with suspected acute appendicitis pre-COVID-19 rota (18 March 2020) and post-COVID rota implementation. Data including demographics, inflammatory markers, imaging, mode of management and operative findings were collected. Logistic regression with SPSS was used to determine which factors were associated with conservative management and treated with antibiotics. RESULTS: A total of 161 patients were analysed, 82 pre-COVID19 and 79 post-COVID19. Of the pre-COVID-19 patients, 67.07% underwent appendicectomy while the rest were conservatively managed; 24.3% of these patients underwent a CT scan only. Post-COVID-19, 22.78% of patients underwent appendicectomy with a higher percentage of diagnostic CT scans performed, 43/79 (54.4%, p <0.001). The proportion of histologically normal appendicectomies was significantly reduced in the post-COVID-19 era (12.78% vs 0.00%; p-value 0.001). Logistic regression analysis showed a normal WCC to be associated with greater likelihood of conservative management. No conservatively managed patients returned to theatre in the 30-day follow-up period. CONCLUSION: Due to the restrictions imposed by the post-COVID-19 rota, a greater proportion of patients were managed conservatively with comparable patient outcomes. The approach also led to fewer negative appendicectomies owing to greater reliance on imaging.

A Study to See the Effect of Social Media Usage Among Healthcare Providers.

Purpose This study aimed to assess how healthcare professionals (HCPs) use social media to determine how it influences the quality of patient care. Materials and methods This is a cross-sectional study conducted over eight months, between August 2020 and March 2021 using a questionnaire and checked amongst investigators. Results One hundred fifty-eight participants had electronic devices and 145 (91.9%) used social media at work. 26.6% of these HCPs said they spent less than an hour on social media forums, 31% said they spent one to two hours, 28.5% said two to three hours, and 13.9% said they spent more than four hours. As compared to nurses (46%), consultants and pharmacists use social media at a much lower rate (1% for each group). Compared to junior doctors, a higher percentage of nurses (40%) said they were aware of a social media policy at their hospital (8%). A quarter of healthcare employees (20%) were unaware of their workplace policy, potentially exposing sensitive medical details to the public. More research is needed to assess the particular effects of these results on patient care quality and can help in providing literature informing applications encrypted and secure patient data. Conclusion According to our results, a large percentage of healthcare quality professionals used social media networks. A significant proportion of doctors and nurses use it to visit online medical forums for improving education. A large portion of surveyed sample was unaware of hospital policy on social media usage. Further education is required to improve the right use of social media in the hospital setting.

Virtual Reality (VR)-Based Environmental Enrichment in Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Mild Dementia.

BACKGROUND: Despite an alarming rise in the global prevalence of dementia, the available modalities for improving cognition and mental wellbeing of dementia patients remain limited. Environmental enrichment is an experimental paradigm that has shown promising anti-depressive and memory-enhancing effects in pre-clinical studies. However, its clinical utility has remained limited due to the lack of effective implementation strategies. OBJECTIVE: The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the usability (tolerability and interactivity) of a long-term virtual reality (VR)- based environmental enrichment training program in older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild dementia. A secondary objective was to assess the effect of VR-based environmental enrichment on stabilization of cognitive functioning and improvement of mental wellbeing in older adults with MCI and mild dementia. METHODS: A total of seven participants (four patients with MCI and three with mild dementia) received biweekly VR-based environmental enrichment over a course of 6 months. The tolerability and interactivity of the participants in the VR training was serially assessed via virtual reality sickness questionnaire (VRSQ) and recording of input-error ratio. Cognitive functioning was assessed through Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA) before and after the study. Mental wellbeing was assessed through Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well Being Scale (WEMWBS). RESULTS: VR-based environmental enrichment was well-tolerated by the patients with significant decrease in VRSQ scores (p < 0.01) and input-error ratio (p < 0.001) overtime. VR training was also effective in stabilization of MoCA scores over the course of therapy (non-significant difference in the MoCA scores before and after the therapy) and was associated with a trend (p < 0.1) towards improvement in WEMWBS scores between the first and the last assessments. Qualitative observations by the care-givers further corroborated a noticeable improvement in mental wellbeing of patients. CONCLUSIONS: This pilot study shows that VR can be a feasible, tolerable, and potentially effective tool in long-term support of older adults with MCI and mild dementia.

South Coast appendicular mass management (SCAM) survey.

BACKGROUND: Management of appendicular mass and interval appendicectomy remains a controversial issue. Recent publication of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) reported the incidence of around 20% neoplastic lesions in the age group of more than forty years among the interval appendicectomy group against magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) surveillance only which led to trial termination. The objective of this study is to evaluate the current practice of the management of appendicular mass in five major hospitals of South Coast of the England. METHODS: A proforma was designed and emailed to the general surgical department of five hospitals in the South Coast of England. The proforma completion rate and compliance were improved by direct telephone call to the on-call registrars and consultants to collect data. RESULTS: Fifty-three surgeons (22 consultants, 27 ST3-ST8 grade surgical trainees and 4 SAS grades) completed the proforma. The clinical, hematological and computerized tomography (CT) based diagnostic criteria, and in-patient intravenous antibiotics (IV ABTXs) in addition to the radiological drainage in amenable cases for appendicular mass/abscess were mostly agreed initial management plan among surgeons. Normalization of inflammatory markers and radiological resolution were agreed discharge indicators. Agreed follow up investigations were CT scan (by 23%), Colonoscopy (by 13%), and both CT and colonoscopy (by 57%) after discharging patients. Only 17% surgeons offered planned interval appendicectomy and 62% surgeons offered interval appendectomy in selective cases of appendicular mass within 6 weeks to 6 months after discharge. CONCLUSIONS: South Coast appendicular mass management (SCAM) survey confirms diverse practice to manage appendicular mass/abscess among surgeons working in South Coast hospitals. A substantial percentage of surgeons do not offer interval appendectomy to patients potentially leaving neoplastic lesions in situ.

Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials only exploring the role of single incision laparoscopic surgery versus conventional multiport laparoscopic surgery for colorectal resections.

BACKGROUND: The objective of this article is to evaluate the surgical outcomes in patients undergoing single incision laparoscopic surgery (SILS) versus conventional multi-incision laparoscopic surgery (MILS) for colorectal resections. METHODS: The data retrieved from the published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) reporting the surgical outcomes in patients undergoing SILS versus MILS for colorectal resections was analysed using the principles of meta-analysis. The combined outcome of dichotomous data was represented as risk ratio (RR) and continuous data was shown as standardized mean difference (SMD). RESULTS: Five RCTs on 525 patients reported the colorectal resections by SILS versus MILS technique. In the random effects model analysis using the statistical software Review Manager 5.3, the operation time (SMD, 0.20; 95% CI, -0.11 to 0.52; z=1.28; P=0.20), length of in-patient stay (SMD, -0.18; 95% CI, -0.51 to 0.14; z=1.10; P=0.27) and lymph node harvesting (SMD, 0.09; 95% CI, -0.14 to 0.33; z=0.76; P=0.45) were comparable between both techniques. Furthermore, post-operative complications (RR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.65-1.54; z=0.02; P=0.99), post-operative mortality, surgical site infection rate (RR, 3.00; 95% CI, 0.13-70.92; z=0.68; P=0.50), anastomotic leak rate (RR, 0.43; 95% CI, 0.11-1.63; z=1.24; P=0.21), conversion rate (P=0.13) and re-operation rate (P=0.43) were also statistically similar following SILS and MILS. CONCLUSIONS: SILS failed to demonstrate any superiority over MILS for colorectal resections in all post-operative surgical outcomes.