Emergency surgeons' perceptions and attitudes towards antibiotic prescribing and resistance: a worldwide cross-sectional survey.

Background: Antibiotic resistance (AMR) is a growing public health problem worldwide, in part related to inadequate antibiotic use. A better knowledge of physicians' motivations, attitudes and practice about AMR and prescribing should enable the design and implementation of effective antibiotic stewardship programs (ASPs). The objective of the study was to assess attitudes and perceptions concerning AMR and use of antibiotics among surgeons who regularly perform emergency or trauma surgery. Methods: A cross-sectional web-based survey was conducted contacting 4904 individuals belonging to a mailing list provided by the World Society of Emergency Surgery. Participation was voluntary and anonymous. The survey was open for 5 weeks (from May 3, 2017, to June 6, 2017), within which two reminders were sent. The self-administered questionnaire was developed by a multidisciplinary team; reliability and validity were assessed. Results: The overall response rate was 12.5%. Almost all participants considered AMR an important worldwide problem, but 45.6% of them underrated the problem in their own hospitals. Surgeons provided with periodic reports on local AMR demonstrated a lower underrating in their hospital. Only 66.3% of the surgeons stated to receive periodic reports on local AMR data, and among them, 56.2% had consulted them to select an antibiotic in the previous month. Availability of systematic reports about AMR, availability of guidelines for therapy of infections, and advice from an infectious diseases specialist were considered very helpful measures to improve antibiotic prescribing by 68.0, 65.7, and 64.9%, respectively. Persuasive and restrictive ASPs were both considered helpful measures by 64.5%. Moreover, 86.3% considered locally developed guidelines more useful than national ones. Only 21.9% received formal training in antibiotic prescribing in the previous year; among them, 86.6% declared to be interested in receiving more training. Conclusions: Availability of periodic reports on local AMR data was considered an important tool to guide surgeons in choosing the correct antibiotic and to increase awareness of the problem of AMR. Local guidelines for therapy of infections should be implemented in every emergency surgery setting, and developed by a multidisciplinary team directly involving surgeons, infectious diseases specialists, and microbiologists, and formally established in an ASP.

Prospective Observational Study on acute Appendicitis Worldwide (POSAW).

Background: Acute appendicitis (AA) is the most common surgical disease, and appendectomy is the treatment of choice in the majority of cases. A correct diagnosis is key for decreasing the negative appendectomy rate. The management can become difficult in case of complicated appendicitis. The aim of this study is to describe the worldwide clinical and diagnostic work-up and management of AA in surgical departments. Methods: This prospective multicenter observational study was performed in 116 worldwide surgical departments from 44 countries over a 6-month period (April 1, 2016-September 30, 2016). All consecutive patients admitted to surgical departments with a clinical diagnosis of AA were included in the study. Results: A total of 4282 patients were enrolled in the POSAW study, 1928 (45%) women and 2354 (55%) men, with a median age of 29 years. Nine hundred and seven (21.2%) patients underwent an abdominal CT scan, 1856 (43.3%) patients an US, and 285 (6.7%) patients both CT scan and US. A total of 4097 (95.7%) patients underwent surgery; 1809 (42.2%) underwent open appendectomy and 2215 (51.7%) had laparoscopic appendectomy. One hundred eighty-five (4.3%) patients were managed conservatively. Major complications occurred in 199 patients (4.6%). The overall mortality rate was 0.28%. Conclusions: The results of the present study confirm the clinical value of imaging techniques and prognostic scores. Appendectomy remains the most effective treatment of acute appendicitis. Mortality rate is low.

WSES Guidelines for the management of acute left sided colonic diverticulitis in the emergency setting.

Acute left sided colonic diverticulitis is one of the most common clinical conditions encountered by surgeons in acute setting. A World Society of Emergency Surgery (WSES) Consensus Conference on acute diverticulitis was held during the 3rd World Congress of the WSES in Jerusalem, Israel, on July 7th, 2015. During this consensus conference the guidelines for the management of acute left sided colonic diverticulitis in the emergency setting were presented and discussed. This document represents the executive summary of the final guidelines approved by the consensus conference.

Multiple hepatic inflammatory pseudotumours diagnosed after laparoscopic excisional biopsy.

Inflammatory pseudotumours (IPTs) may occur in almost every organ of the human body, the liver being the second most frequent organ which is affected. Inflammatory pseudotumours of the liver are rare benign lesions of unknown aetiology, which usually present as solitary liver masses of variable sizes. The differential diagnoses of malignant liver tumours are challenging and they usually require biopsies and histologic examinations. We are presenting the case of a patient with multiple hepatic lesions which mimicked liver metastases. Two percutaneous biopsies were inconclusive. The definitive diagnosis of multiple hepatic inflammatory pseudotumours was made after a laparoscopic exploration with an excisional biopsy of liver lesions and their pathologic evaluation. All lesions disappeared after several months, without any further treatments.

Adenoma-carcinoma sequence in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.

INTRODUCTION: Cholangiocarcinoma is a rare tumor but recent data report a worldwide increase in incidence and mortality. There are several risk factors associated with cholangiocarcinoma, and chronic inflammation of billiary tree seems to be implied in the cholangiocarcinogenesis, but little is known about this process. PRESENTATION OF CASE: We present a 56-year-old female with a bile duct adenoma incidentally discovered in the follow up of breast cancer that 18 months later progress to intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. DISCUSSION: This is a rare presentation of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma that suggests the classic adenoma-carcinoma sequence in cholangiocarcinogenesis. Furthermore this case gives rise to some questions about the possible common ground on intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and breast cancer. CONCLUSION: Cholangiocarcinogenesis is a complex multi-step mechanism and further investigations are needed to fully understand this process.

Liver abscess of the caudate lobe due to Staphylococcus aureus in an ulcerative colitis patient: First case report.

Liver abscesses are very rare complications of ulcerative colitis, with only nine cases described in the literature, to our knowledge. We report a case where a recurrence of liver abscess occurred in an ulcerative colitis patient, in two different hepatic lobes, which has not been previously described. The recurrence was in the caudate lobe having the cultures yielded Staphylococcus aureus. This is also the first case report of liver abscess in this location and caused by this microorganism in an ulcerative colitis patient. A review of the literature concerning liver abscesses involving ulcerative colitis patients is also provided.