General surgeon's antibiotic stewardship: Climbing the Rogers Diffusion of Innovation Curve-Prospective Cohort Study.

INTRODUCTION: The primary aim of this study was to establish concordance of general surgeon's prescribing practice with local IV-oral antibiotic guidelines. The secondary aim was to evaluate the effect of introducing educational antibiotic measures. The Rogers Diffusion of Innovation Model was used to explore the adoption of antibiotic stewardship practices. METHODS: In this prospective, cohort study, data was collected on 100 pre and 100 post awareness intervention programme patients. The educational intervention comprised raising awareness of a) the guidelines b) pre-intervention results c) introducing an IV-oral antibiotic prompt sheet. The concordance with local guidelines was compared between pre- and post-intervention groups using Fisher's Exact Test or Pearson's Chi Test (SPSS Statistics V22). RESULTS: The concordance of general surgical doctors with local IV-oral antibiotic guidelines was poor and did not improve significantly following the awareness intervention programme. There was no uptake of the antibiotic prompt sheet. There was a trend towards increase in the number of patients switched from IV to oral antibiotics at 48-72 h and significant increase (p < 0.05) in number of patients with clearly documented intention to review IV antibiotics. CONCLUSION: Antibiotic governance measures failed to inspire even an initial group of innovators to use the antibiotic prompt sheets. It appears educational measures are effective in improving prescribing behavior and intent amongst a group of early adopters, but this fails to reach a critical mass. In order to improve antibiotic governance and embark upon the Rogers Diffusion of Innovation Curve, more must be done to engage general surgical doctors in timely, judicious antibiotic prescribing.

Iliofemoral pulsion endarterectomy.

We present our experience with a technique of endarterectomy for use in patients with iliofemoral occlusive disease, in which the atheromatous plug is extruded from the intact artery by external manipulation (pulsion). A retrospective review of consecutive patients who underwent surgical iliofemoral pulsion endarterectomy (IFPE) in two vascular surgery units between 1998 and 2006 was performed. Primary and secondary graft patency, limb salvage, and patient survival rates were determined using Kaplan-Meier methods. Fifty-eight IFPEs were carried out successfully on 54 patients (36 men, 18 women, median age 66 years) presenting with critical limb ischemia (n=23), with claudication (n=29), or in conjunction with abdominal aortic aneurysm repair (n=6). Mean (range) follow-up was 17 months (1-69). During this period six patients (all male, mean age 64 years) underwent iliofemoral bypass using a prosthetic graft when the iliac arteries were found unsuitable for endarterectomy because of hypoplasia or heavy calcification. Two-year cumulative primary patency of IFPE was 95%, secondary patency 100%, limb salvage 98.5%, and patient survival 73%. This modification of iliac endarterectomy is a relatively simple and safe technique that eschews prosthetics and offers a durable solution for the majority of patients with extensive iliofemoral occlusive disease.

Incisional, epigastric and umbilical hernia repair using the Prolene Hernia System: describing a novel technique.

The Prolene Hernia System (PHS) is already widely in use in the United Kingdom for inguinal hernias. We describe the novel technique of using the three-in-one design of the PHS (Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Bracknell, UK) for repairing incisional, epigastric and umbilical herniae. This is a three-dimensional device and consists of an onlay patch, a tubular connector and an underlay patch. We recommend a four 'corner' suturing of the underlay patch under vision (and then) through the full thickness of abdominal wall layers to ensure a flat underlay mesh. These four sutures flatten out the underlay patch and can be tied or removed with equal effect. The sutures are placed at 3, 6, 9 and 12 o'clock, which simplifies the procedure and ensures that the underlay lays correctly and is corrugation-free and tension-free, thereby providing a two-layer repair for those herniae with a high rate of recurrence.