A proposed difficulty grading system for laparoscopic bile duct exploration: benefits to clinical practice, training and research.

BACKGROUND: A gap remains between the mounting evidence for single session management of bile duct stones and the adoption of this approach. Laparoscopic bile duct exploration (LBDE) is limited by the scarcity of training opportunities and adequate equipment and by the perception that the technique requires a high skill-set. The aim of this study was to create a new classification of difficulty based on operative characteristics and to stratify postoperative outcomes of easy vs. difficult LBDE irrespective of the surgeon's experience. METHODS: A cohort of 1335 LBDEs was classified according to the location, number and size of ductal stones, the retrieval technique, utilisation of choledochoscopy and specific biliary pathologies encountered. A combination of features indicated easy (Grades I and II A & B) or difficult (Grades III A and B, IV and V) transcystic or transcholedochal explorations. RESULTS: 78.3% of patients with acute cholecystitis or pancreatitis, 37% with jaundice and 46% with cholangitis had easy explorations. Difficult explorations were more likely to present as emergencies, with obstructive jaundice, previous sphincterotomy and dilated bile ducts on ultrasound scans. 77.7% of easy explorations were transcystic and 62.3% of difficult explorations transductal. Choledochoscopy was utilised in 23.4% of easy vs. 98% of difficult explorations. The use of biliary drains, open conversions, median operative time, biliary-related complications, hospital stay, readmissions, and retained stones increased with the difficulty grade. Grades I and II patients had 2 or more hospital episodes in 26.5% vs. 41.2% for grades III to V. There were 2 deaths in difficulty Grade V and one in Grade IIB. CONCLUSION: Difficulty grading of LBDE is useful in predicting outcomes and facilitating comparison between studies. It ensures fair structuring and assessment of training and progress of the learning curve. LBDEs were easy in 72% with 77% completed transcystically. This may encourage more units to adopt this approach.

Development of Surgical Error Reduction System (SERS) for Laparoscopic Appendectomy by using Observational Human Reliability Analysis (OCHRA) model and to analyse its impact on patient outcomes.

This project is to develop a surgical error reduction system (SERS) for laparoscopic appendectomy by using observational Human Reliability Analysis (OCHRA) model and to analyse it impact on patient's outcome.

Long-term follow-up of patients undergoing laparoscopic surgery for phaeochromocytoma.

INTRODUCTION: Phaeochromocytomas are rare tumours with a recurrence after open surgery ranging between 6-23 per cent. Long-term follow-up studies after laparoscopic surgery for phaeochromocytoma are lacking. The aim of this study was to look at the long-term oncological outcome of a consecutive series of patients from a single centre undergoing laparoscopic surgery for a phaeochromocytoma. METHODS: Demographic data on all patients with an adrenal tumour or paraganglioma were prospectively kept on a database between September 1999 and December 2017. Electronic hospital records, including imaging from a national linked archiving and communication system, were reviewed for patients with a phaeochromocytoma in November 2021. RESULTS: During the study interval 135 patients with a phaeochromocytoma were operated on in the unit, of which 118 (87.4 per cent) were attempted laparoscopically. Five (4.2 per cent) were converted to open surgery, whereas 117 had a potentially curative operation. There was no peri- or postoperative mortality. At a median follow-up of 10 (interquartile range 6-12.9) years, only 3 (2.6 per cent) patients died from metastatic phaeochromocytoma. One further patient developed lymph node metastases, which were removed at open surgery. No patient had a local recurrence and the only significant predictor of recurrence was the presence of lymph node metastases (P < 0.001). Two patients developed a contralateral adrenal phaeochromocytoma, while one of these also had a paraganglioma. The Kaplan-Meier estimate of phaeochromocytoma-free survival was 96 per cent (95 per cent c.i. 92.2 to 98.8) at 5 years and 92 per cent (95 per cent c.i. 86.7 to 97.3) at 10 years. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that long-term oncological outcomes of laparoscopic surgery for patients with a phaeochromocytoma are at least as good as that with an open operation.

Gall Bladder Empyema: Early Cholecystectomy during the Index Admission Improves Outcomes.

OBJECTIVES: We aim to evaluate our policy of index admission management of gall bladder empyema and the effect of the timing of surgery on the outcomes. METHODS: We analyzed a series of 5400 laparoscopic cholecystectomies. Data were collected prospectively over 26 y. Patients were divided into two groups: group 1, intervention within 72 h, and group 2, intervention after 72 h of admission. We had a policy of intention to treat during the index admission, but delays sometimes occurred because of late referral, a need to optimize patients, availability of theater time, or the biliary surgeon being on leave. The groups were then compared with regard to the duration of surgery, the difficulty grading, complications, hospital stay, and conversion rate. RESULTS: A total of 372 patients were included; 160 (43%) operated on within 72 h (group 1) and 212 (57%) after 72 h (group 2). There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups with regard to the operation time, conversion rate, and complications rate. The difference in total hospital stay was, however, statistically significant. CONCLUSION: Surgical management of empyema should be offered as soon as possible after admission as with any acute cholecystitis. Surgery carried out after 72 h of admission is only associated with longer hospital stay but no statistically significant differences in other outcome parameters. In the presence of specialist expertise, fitness for surgery should be the determining factor of whether or not to offer surgery to these patients, regardless of the interval since their admission.

Predicting the difficult laparoscopic cholecystectomy: development and validation of a pre-operative risk score using an objective operative difficulty grading system.

BACKGROUND: The prediction of a difficult cholecystectomy has traditionally been based on certain pre-operative clinical and imaging factors. Most of the previous literature reported small patient cohorts and have not used an objective measure of operative difficulty. The aim of this study was to develop a pre-operative score to predict difficult cholecystectomy, as defined by a validated intra-operative difficulty grading scale. METHOD: Two cohorts from prospectively maintained databases of patients who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy were analysed: the CholeS Study (8755 patients) and a single surgeon series (4089 patients). Factors potentially predictive of difficulty were correlated to the Nassar intra-operative difficulty scale. A multivariable binary logistic regression analysis was then used to identify factors that were independently associated with difficult laparoscopic cholecystectomy, defined as operative difficulty grades 3 to 5. The resulting model was then converted to a risk score, and validated on both internal and external datasets. RESULT: Increasing age and ASA classification, male gender, diagnosis of CBD stone or cholecystitis, thick-walled gallbladders, CBD dilation, use of pre-operative ERCP and non-elective operations were found to be significant independent predictors of difficult cases. A risk score based on these factors returned an area under the ROC curve of 0.789 (95% CI 0.773-0.806, p < 0.001) on external validation, with 11.0% versus 80.0% of patients classified as low versus high risk having difficult surgeries. CONCLUSION: We have developed and validated a pre-operative scoring system that uses easily available pre-operative variables to predict difficult laparoscopic cholecystectomies. This scoring system should assist in patient selection for day case surgery, optimising pre-operative surgical planning (e.g. allocation of the procedure to a suitably trained surgeon) and counselling patients during the consent process. The score could also be used to risk adjust outcomes in future research.

Utilisation of an operative difficulty grading scale for laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

BACKGROUND: A reliable system for grading operative difficulty of laparoscopic cholecystectomy would standardise description of findings and reporting of outcomes. The aim of this study was to validate a difficulty grading system (Nassar scale), testing its applicability and consistency in two large prospective datasets. METHODS: Patient and disease-related variables and 30-day outcomes were identified in two prospective cholecystectomy databases: the multi-centre prospective cohort of 8820 patients from the recent CholeS Study and the single-surgeon series containing 4089 patients. Operative data and patient outcomes were correlated with Nassar operative difficultly scale, using Kendall's tau for dichotomous variables, or Jonckheere-Terpstra tests for continuous variables. A ROC curve analysis was performed, to quantify the predictive accuracy of the scale for each outcome, with continuous outcomes dichotomised, prior to analysis. RESULTS: A higher operative difficulty grade was consistently associated with worse outcomes for the patients in both the reference and CholeS cohorts. The median length of stay increased from 0 to 4 days, and the 30-day complication rate from 7.6 to 24.4% as the difficulty grade increased from 1 to 4/5 (both p < 0.001). In the CholeS cohort, a higher difficulty grade was found to be most strongly associated with conversion to open and 30-day mortality (AUROC = 0.903, 0.822, respectively). On multivariable analysis, the Nassar operative difficultly scale was found to be a significant independent predictor of operative duration, conversion to open surgery, 30-day complications and 30-day reintervention (all p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: We have shown that an operative difficulty scale can standardise the description of operative findings by multiple grades of surgeons to facilitate audit, training assessment and research. It provides a tool for reporting operative findings, disease severity and technical difficulty and can be utilised in future research to reliably compare outcomes according to case mix and intra-operative difficulty.

Correction to: Utilisation of an operative difficulty grading scale for laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

The list of the CholeS management group, Collaborators and Data Validators were omitted from the Acknowledgments.

Fluorocholangiography: reincarnation in the laparoscopic era-evaluation of intra-operative cholangiography in 3635 laparoscopic cholecystectomies.

BACKGROUND: The introduction of laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) resulted in the decline of routine intra-operative cholangiography (IOC). Common bile duct stones are being diagnosed preoperatively using magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP). We aim to evaluate the use and benefits of IOC during laparoscopic biliary surgery at a high-volume biliary surgery unit. METHODS: Prospective data from 4088 patients undergoing LC over 22 years were analysed. Referral protocols allow one firm to receive the great majority of biliary emergencies and all suspected ductal stones. All patients with gall stones on ultrasound scanning, fit for surgery, will undergo LC during the index admission. MRCP and ERCP are not part of preoperative investigation. A four-port LC is performed with a size 5Fr ureteric catheter within an open cannula to obtain an IOC through right sub-costal port. RESULTS: Of 4088 patients, IOC was attempted in 3691 (90.2 %) and 3635 had a successful IOC (98.4 %). 75 % were females. The mean age was 59 years. Patients presented with one or more of the following: chronic biliary pain in 60 %, acute pain 26.7 %, acute cholecystitis 8.4 %, gallstone pancreatitis 7.8 % and jaundice with or without cholangitis in 19.2 %. A total of 1328 patients (36.5 %) had risk factors for CBD stones. The IOC was abnormal in 975 cases (26.8 %), recording 1599 abnormalities. IOC identified 774 patients with CBD stones (21.3 %), including previously unsuspected CBD stones in 4.7 %. IOC was false negative in 20 cases (0.5 %) found to have stones on basket exploration. A decision not to perform IOC in 453 cases (11 %) was made preoperatively in 74.2 % and intra-operatively in 12.3 %. CONCLUSION: IOC can be safely and routinely performed in LC. It helps to identify CBD stones, even in patients with no known risk factors, delineate bile duct anatomy and facilitate single-stage management of CBD stones.

Basket-in-catheter access for transcystic laparoscopic bile duct exploration: technique and results.

BACKGROUND: When common bile duct (CBD) stones are detected during laparoscopic cholecystectomy, the insertion of baskets via the cystic duct (CD) can be difficult and may occasionally cause complications. We introduced a new technique 'basket in catheter' (BIC) for transcystic CBD exploration. METHODS: Although cannulating the CD using a cholangiography catheter is successful in most cases, it may occasionally be difficult. Cystic duct anatomy may prevent the usually stiffer sharper tip of the basket, from entering the CBD, resulting in failure, perforation or a false passage. In the majority of our cases, the cholangiography catheter (CC) is not withdrawn from the duct should the intraoperative cholangiography show CBD stones. The tip of a basket is inserted into the CC and advanced to a predetermined distance, allowing the tip of the basket to exit the end of the CC into the CBD. The basket is then opened, advanced to feel the lower end and manipulated to trap the stone. The common hepatic duct is compressed gently to prevent stones from slipping upwards. The catheter and basket are pulled back together to extract the stone. RESULTS: We have used this technique in 274 cases since 2010. The rate of transcystic versus choledochotomy stone extraction has increased, saving unnecessary choledochotomies. The percentage of transcystic exploration increased from 55 % for the period 2005-2009 to 70 % for the period 2010-2014. There were no conversions to open surgery and no retained stones. The morbidity rate was 4.0 % with no mortality. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate a technique to facilitate the insertion of extraction baskets into the common bile duct using the cholangiography catheter as a guide. The 'basket-in-catheter' (BIC) technique for transcystic CBD exploration is easier and safer than inserting the basket alone.

SIRT2: tumour suppressor or tumour promoter in operable breast cancer?

PURPOSE: Sirtuins comprise a family of genes involved in cellular stress, survival and damage responses. They have been implicated in a range of diseases including cancer, with most information pertaining to their function in tumourigenesis being derived from in vitro studies, or model organisms. Their putative roles as tumour suppressors or tumour promoters remain to be validated in vivo. Little is known about their role in breast tumourigenesis. We sought to evaluate the seven sirtuin family members (SIRT1-7) in a human breast cancer cohort, in relation to clinico-pathological features and outcome of the disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Immunohistochemical analysis of SIRT1-7 protein levels was undertaken in 392 oestrogen receptor (ER+ve) and 153 ER-ve breast tumour samples. SIRT1-7 transcriptional levels were assessed in normal (n=25), non-malignant (n=73) and malignant (n=70) breast tissue using Relative Quantitative Real Time PCR. Statistical analyses determined if SIRT1-7 transcription or protein expression was associated with clinical parameters or outcome. RESULTS: In ER-ve tumours, high protein levels of nuclear SIRT2 were associated with reduced time to recurrence and disease-specific death. This association was only observed in Grade 3 tumours. In the ER+ve cohort, high SIRT2 nuclear levels were associated with shorter disease-free survival and time to recurrence whilst on Tamoxifen, in patients with Grade 3 tumours. Conversely, in Grade 2 tumours, high SIRT2 levels were associated with increased time to recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that SIRT2 is the sirtuin predominantly involved in breast tumourigenesis and prognosis. It indicates that SIRT2 acts as a tumour suppressor or tumour promoter dependent upon breast tumour grade.

Cellular senescence in pretransplant renal biopsies predicts postoperative organ function.

Older and marginal donors have been used to meet the shortfall in available organs for renal transplantation. Post-transplant renal function and outcome from these donors are often poorer than chronologically younger donors. Some organs, however, function adequately for many years. We have hypothesized that such organs are biologically younger than poorer performing counterparts. We have tested this hypothesis in a cohort of preimplantation human renal allograft biopsies ( n = 75) that have been assayed by real-time polymerase chain reaction for the expression of known markers of cellular damage and biological aging, including CDKN2A, CDKN1A, SIRT2 and POT1. These have been investigated for any associations with traditional factors affecting transplant outcome (donor age, cold ischaemic time) and organ function posttransplant (serum creatinine levels). Linear regression analyses indicated a strong association for serum creatinine with pre-transplant CDKN2A levels ( p = 0.001) and donor age ( p = 0.004) at 6 months post-transplant. Both these markers correlated significantly with urinary protein to creatinine ratios ( p = 0.002 and p = 0.005 respectively), an informative marker for subsequent graft dysfunction. POT1 expression also showed a significant association with this parameter ( p = 0.05). Multiple linear regression analyses for CDKN2A and donor age accounted for 24.6% ( p = 0.001) of observed variability in serum creatinine levels at 6 months and 23.7% ( p = 0.001) at 1 year posttransplant. Thus, these data indicate that allograft biological age is an important novel prognostic determinant for renal transplant outcome.