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LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLA. – Every year brings new studies, updates, and trials, and it can be a challenge to keep up.
Christian Jones, MD, FACS, a general surgeon in the division of acute care surgery at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, ranked some of the more notable trauma studies published in the past year and presented his perspective on them at the annual scientific assembly of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma.
Day 2 is the “sweet spot” for cholecystectomy
When it comes to cholecystectomy, acute cholecystitis (AC) patients appear to fare the best when operations are conducted on day 2 after admission, according to a study of patients registered in the Swedish Registry of Gallstone Surgery and Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography (GallRiks).
The retrospective study of 15,760 AC patients found that the rate of 30-day mortality of AC patients was significantly higher for patients who underwent a cholecystectomy on day of (odds ratio = .42) 3 days after (OR = .34), and 4 days after admission (OR = 1.0), compared with those who were operated on between 1 day after (OR = .23), and 2 days after (OR = .29) admission.
Lead author My Blohm, MD, of the department of clinical sciences, intervention, and technology at the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, and fellow investigators hypothesized that waiting allows patients to be medically optimized for surgery (J Gastrointest Surg. 2017;21[1]: 33-40).
With 90-day mortality rates showing nearly identical results for day 1 and day 2, holding off on surgery may be the best move for the patient, even if it is not the ideal situation for a provider.
“Sure, as we all know by now, delayed cholecystectomy is seldom necessary, later surgery is more difficult, and more likely to be associated with complications at least with an equal conversion to an open procedure, but even more surprising is the higher mortality on the admissions day,” said Dr. Jones.
Antibiotics for abscess drainage patients
For patients requiring abscess drainage, antibiotics may be the best bet to keep infection at bay, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in June 2017.
The prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, study of 786 simple skin abscess drainage patients found clindamycin and Bactrim (sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim) outperformed a placebo in an evaluation of symptoms of true ongoing infection in patients even 30 days after the procedure (N Engl J Med. 2017 Jun 29;376[26]:2545-55).
Patients studied had Staphylococcus aureus (527) or methicillin-resistant S. aureus (388).
After 10 days of therapy, cure rate of infection for the clindamycin and Bactrim groups were 83% and 82% respectively, compared with 70% in the placebo group, according to Robert S. Daum, MD, principal investigator at the MRSA Research Center, University of Chicago. After 30 days, cure rate for both antibiotic groups remained superior to that of the placebo group.
While these treatments were successful, concern of drug resistance is notable and should be taken into consideration when deciding on treatment options.
“This does get to our typical concern with increased antibiotic usage, and that’s the concern of the health of the community versus the health of the individual patient,” said Dr. Jones. “Is the increased rate of [antibiotic] resistance important enough to have a lower cure rate of simple abscess drainage? We don’t know the answer to that.”
Loop ileostomies look good for C. diff patients
This minimally invasive procedure has been the subject of some well-received studies with findings that indicate it is a promising choice for patients with a Clostridium difficile–associated disease (CDAD) over total colectomy, Dr. Jones said.
In a study published in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, a study group of patients with CDAD who had loop ileostomy had no statistical difference in almost any recorded characteristic compared with those who underwent a total colectomy, except mortality rate. The retrospective, multicenter study of 98 CDAD patients found the mortality rate of the loop ileostomy group to be 17.2%, compared with 39.7% in the total colectomy group (J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2017 Jul;83[1]:36-40).
“The outcomes all favored loop ileostomy in a statistically significant fashion,” said Dr. Jones. “Unsurprisingly, estimated blood loss and need for transfusions were all significantly less in the loop ileostomy patients, and the adjusted overall mortality, even if requiring a reoperation, still favored doing the loop ileostomy first.”
The one difference between LI and colectomy patients was a longer time from initial diagnosis to operation among LI patients, with about 12 hours from diagnosis for the colectomy versus 24 hours for LI patients, according to lead author Paula Ferrada, MD, FACS, director of the surgical and trauma intensive care unit at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, and her fellow investigators,
Contrary to previous findings, the study found that LI can be performed on sick patients as well, according to the researchers, and failure of the procedure is not associated with increased mortality.
While these findings are encouraging, “there are things that the individual patient may reveal to you on your examination that tell you they are not a candidate and that you should go to total colectomy,” said Dr. Jones. “Keep in mind that perhaps we can be a bit more aggressive in this less invasive procedure.”
The skin vac actually works
A study published in Annals of Surgery found prophylactic negative-pressure dressings are associated with a decreased rate of surgical site infections in laparotomy wounds.
“The biggest surprise to me out of all of these studies is that a new piece of technology actually seems to work,” said Dr. Jones.
The randomized study included 50 laparotomy patients with a stapled wound, half of whom received a skin vac over their incision while the other half had a standard OpSite occlusive dressing (Ann Surg. 2017 Jun;265[6]:1082-6).
Patients in both arms had the same type of wound and had their dressings on for 4 days before being switched.
Rate of surgical site infections for the skin vac group was 8.3% over 30 days from operation, compared with 32% in the OpSite group. Average length of stay for patients with the pressure dressing was 6.1 days, while patients with an OpSite dressing had a length of 14.7 days, more than double, according to lead author Donal Peter O’Leary, MD, surgeon at Cork University Hospital, Ireland.
The difference in length of stay does become insignificant if six OpSite patients who stayed longer than 20 days are discounted, only two of whom were delayed because of wound complications as opposed to placement issues or unassociated infections.
“But a surgical site infection difference of 50% or more using a skin vac instead of a standard dressing, whether you’re talking about clean, clean-contaminated, or contaminated cases with a skin closure, seems to be worthy of notice,” explained Dr. Jones.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLA. – Every year brings new studies, updates, and trials, and it can be a challenge to keep up.
Christian Jones, MD, FACS, a general surgeon in the division of acute care surgery at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, ranked some of the more notable trauma studies published in the past year and presented his perspective on them at the annual scientific assembly of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma.
Day 2 is the “sweet spot” for cholecystectomy
When it comes to cholecystectomy, acute cholecystitis (AC) patients appear to fare the best when operations are conducted on day 2 after admission, according to a study of patients registered in the Swedish Registry of Gallstone Surgery and Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography (GallRiks).
The retrospective study of 15,760 AC patients found that the rate of 30-day mortality of AC patients was significantly higher for patients who underwent a cholecystectomy on day of (odds ratio = .42) 3 days after (OR = .34), and 4 days after admission (OR = 1.0), compared with those who were operated on between 1 day after (OR = .23), and 2 days after (OR = .29) admission.
Lead author My Blohm, MD, of the department of clinical sciences, intervention, and technology at the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, and fellow investigators hypothesized that waiting allows patients to be medically optimized for surgery (J Gastrointest Surg. 2017;21[1]: 33-40).
With 90-day mortality rates showing nearly identical results for day 1 and day 2, holding off on surgery may be the best move for the patient, even if it is not the ideal situation for a provider.
“Sure, as we all know by now, delayed cholecystectomy is seldom necessary, later surgery is more difficult, and more likely to be associated with complications at least with an equal conversion to an open procedure, but even more surprising is the higher mortality on the admissions day,” said Dr. Jones.
Antibiotics for abscess drainage patients
For patients requiring abscess drainage, antibiotics may be the best bet to keep infection at bay, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in June 2017.
The prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, study of 786 simple skin abscess drainage patients found clindamycin and Bactrim (sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim) outperformed a placebo in an evaluation of symptoms of true ongoing infection in patients even 30 days after the procedure (N Engl J Med. 2017 Jun 29;376[26]:2545-55).
Patients studied had Staphylococcus aureus (527) or methicillin-resistant S. aureus (388).
After 10 days of therapy, cure rate of infection for the clindamycin and Bactrim groups were 83% and 82% respectively, compared with 70% in the placebo group, according to Robert S. Daum, MD, principal investigator at the MRSA Research Center, University of Chicago. After 30 days, cure rate for both antibiotic groups remained superior to that of the placebo group.
While these treatments were successful, concern of drug resistance is notable and should be taken into consideration when deciding on treatment options.
“This does get to our typical concern with increased antibiotic usage, and that’s the concern of the health of the community versus the health of the individual patient,” said Dr. Jones. “Is the increased rate of [antibiotic] resistance important enough to have a lower cure rate of simple abscess drainage? We don’t know the answer to that.”
Loop ileostomies look good for C. diff patients
This minimally invasive procedure has been the subject of some well-received studies with findings that indicate it is a promising choice for patients with a Clostridium difficile–associated disease (CDAD) over total colectomy, Dr. Jones said.
In a study published in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, a study group of patients with CDAD who had loop ileostomy had no statistical difference in almost any recorded characteristic compared with those who underwent a total colectomy, except mortality rate. The retrospective, multicenter study of 98 CDAD patients found the mortality rate of the loop ileostomy group to be 17.2%, compared with 39.7% in the total colectomy group (J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2017 Jul;83[1]:36-40).
“The outcomes all favored loop ileostomy in a statistically significant fashion,” said Dr. Jones. “Unsurprisingly, estimated blood loss and need for transfusions were all significantly less in the loop ileostomy patients, and the adjusted overall mortality, even if requiring a reoperation, still favored doing the loop ileostomy first.”
The one difference between LI and colectomy patients was a longer time from initial diagnosis to operation among LI patients, with about 12 hours from diagnosis for the colectomy versus 24 hours for LI patients, according to lead author Paula Ferrada, MD, FACS, director of the surgical and trauma intensive care unit at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, and her fellow investigators,
Contrary to previous findings, the study found that LI can be performed on sick patients as well, according to the researchers, and failure of the procedure is not associated with increased mortality.
While these findings are encouraging, “there are things that the individual patient may reveal to you on your examination that tell you they are not a candidate and that you should go to total colectomy,” said Dr. Jones. “Keep in mind that perhaps we can be a bit more aggressive in this less invasive procedure.”
The skin vac actually works
A study published in Annals of Surgery found prophylactic negative-pressure dressings are associated with a decreased rate of surgical site infections in laparotomy wounds.
“The biggest surprise to me out of all of these studies is that a new piece of technology actually seems to work,” said Dr. Jones.
The randomized study included 50 laparotomy patients with a stapled wound, half of whom received a skin vac over their incision while the other half had a standard OpSite occlusive dressing (Ann Surg. 2017 Jun;265[6]:1082-6).
Patients in both arms had the same type of wound and had their dressings on for 4 days before being switched.
Rate of surgical site infections for the skin vac group was 8.3% over 30 days from operation, compared with 32% in the OpSite group. Average length of stay for patients with the pressure dressing was 6.1 days, while patients with an OpSite dressing had a length of 14.7 days, more than double, according to lead author Donal Peter O’Leary, MD, surgeon at Cork University Hospital, Ireland.
The difference in length of stay does become insignificant if six OpSite patients who stayed longer than 20 days are discounted, only two of whom were delayed because of wound complications as opposed to placement issues or unassociated infections.
“But a surgical site infection difference of 50% or more using a skin vac instead of a standard dressing, whether you’re talking about clean, clean-contaminated, or contaminated cases with a skin closure, seems to be worthy of notice,” explained Dr. Jones.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLA. – Every year brings new studies, updates, and trials, and it can be a challenge to keep up.
Christian Jones, MD, FACS, a general surgeon in the division of acute care surgery at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, ranked some of the more notable trauma studies published in the past year and presented his perspective on them at the annual scientific assembly of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma.
Day 2 is the “sweet spot” for cholecystectomy
When it comes to cholecystectomy, acute cholecystitis (AC) patients appear to fare the best when operations are conducted on day 2 after admission, according to a study of patients registered in the Swedish Registry of Gallstone Surgery and Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography (GallRiks).
The retrospective study of 15,760 AC patients found that the rate of 30-day mortality of AC patients was significantly higher for patients who underwent a cholecystectomy on day of (odds ratio = .42) 3 days after (OR = .34), and 4 days after admission (OR = 1.0), compared with those who were operated on between 1 day after (OR = .23), and 2 days after (OR = .29) admission.
Lead author My Blohm, MD, of the department of clinical sciences, intervention, and technology at the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, and fellow investigators hypothesized that waiting allows patients to be medically optimized for surgery (J Gastrointest Surg. 2017;21[1]: 33-40).
With 90-day mortality rates showing nearly identical results for day 1 and day 2, holding off on surgery may be the best move for the patient, even if it is not the ideal situation for a provider.
“Sure, as we all know by now, delayed cholecystectomy is seldom necessary, later surgery is more difficult, and more likely to be associated with complications at least with an equal conversion to an open procedure, but even more surprising is the higher mortality on the admissions day,” said Dr. Jones.
Antibiotics for abscess drainage patients
For patients requiring abscess drainage, antibiotics may be the best bet to keep infection at bay, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in June 2017.
The prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, study of 786 simple skin abscess drainage patients found clindamycin and Bactrim (sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim) outperformed a placebo in an evaluation of symptoms of true ongoing infection in patients even 30 days after the procedure (N Engl J Med. 2017 Jun 29;376[26]:2545-55).
Patients studied had Staphylococcus aureus (527) or methicillin-resistant S. aureus (388).
After 10 days of therapy, cure rate of infection for the clindamycin and Bactrim groups were 83% and 82% respectively, compared with 70% in the placebo group, according to Robert S. Daum, MD, principal investigator at the MRSA Research Center, University of Chicago. After 30 days, cure rate for both antibiotic groups remained superior to that of the placebo group.
While these treatments were successful, concern of drug resistance is notable and should be taken into consideration when deciding on treatment options.
“This does get to our typical concern with increased antibiotic usage, and that’s the concern of the health of the community versus the health of the individual patient,” said Dr. Jones. “Is the increased rate of [antibiotic] resistance important enough to have a lower cure rate of simple abscess drainage? We don’t know the answer to that.”
Loop ileostomies look good for C. diff patients
This minimally invasive procedure has been the subject of some well-received studies with findings that indicate it is a promising choice for patients with a Clostridium difficile–associated disease (CDAD) over total colectomy, Dr. Jones said.
In a study published in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, a study group of patients with CDAD who had loop ileostomy had no statistical difference in almost any recorded characteristic compared with those who underwent a total colectomy, except mortality rate. The retrospective, multicenter study of 98 CDAD patients found the mortality rate of the loop ileostomy group to be 17.2%, compared with 39.7% in the total colectomy group (J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2017 Jul;83[1]:36-40).
“The outcomes all favored loop ileostomy in a statistically significant fashion,” said Dr. Jones. “Unsurprisingly, estimated blood loss and need for transfusions were all significantly less in the loop ileostomy patients, and the adjusted overall mortality, even if requiring a reoperation, still favored doing the loop ileostomy first.”
The one difference between LI and colectomy patients was a longer time from initial diagnosis to operation among LI patients, with about 12 hours from diagnosis for the colectomy versus 24 hours for LI patients, according to lead author Paula Ferrada, MD, FACS, director of the surgical and trauma intensive care unit at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, and her fellow investigators,
Contrary to previous findings, the study found that LI can be performed on sick patients as well, according to the researchers, and failure of the procedure is not associated with increased mortality.
While these findings are encouraging, “there are things that the individual patient may reveal to you on your examination that tell you they are not a candidate and that you should go to total colectomy,” said Dr. Jones. “Keep in mind that perhaps we can be a bit more aggressive in this less invasive procedure.”
The skin vac actually works
A study published in Annals of Surgery found prophylactic negative-pressure dressings are associated with a decreased rate of surgical site infections in laparotomy wounds.
“The biggest surprise to me out of all of these studies is that a new piece of technology actually seems to work,” said Dr. Jones.
The randomized study included 50 laparotomy patients with a stapled wound, half of whom received a skin vac over their incision while the other half had a standard OpSite occlusive dressing (Ann Surg. 2017 Jun;265[6]:1082-6).
Patients in both arms had the same type of wound and had their dressings on for 4 days before being switched.
Rate of surgical site infections for the skin vac group was 8.3% over 30 days from operation, compared with 32% in the OpSite group. Average length of stay for patients with the pressure dressing was 6.1 days, while patients with an OpSite dressing had a length of 14.7 days, more than double, according to lead author Donal Peter O’Leary, MD, surgeon at Cork University Hospital, Ireland.
The difference in length of stay does become insignificant if six OpSite patients who stayed longer than 20 days are discounted, only two of whom were delayed because of wound complications as opposed to placement issues or unassociated infections.
“But a surgical site infection difference of 50% or more using a skin vac instead of a standard dressing, whether you’re talking about clean, clean-contaminated, or contaminated cases with a skin closure, seems to be worthy of notice,” explained Dr. Jones.
REPORTING FROM EAST 2018