Dress to Impress: Public Perception of Plastic Surgeon Attire.

BACKGROUND: Physician attire has been shown to impact patients' perceptions of their provider with regards to professionalism, competency, and trustworthiness in various surgical subspecialties, except in plastic and reconstructive surgery. OBJECTIVES: The authors sought to address this knowledge gap and obtain objective information regarding patients' preferences. METHODS: A survey was distributed to adult, English-speaking participants in the United States using the Amazon MTurk platform from February 2020 to December 2020. Participants were asked to evaluate with a 5-point Likert scale 6 attires (scrubs, scrubs with white coat, formal attire, formal attire with white coat, casual, casual with white coat) in terms of professionalism, competency, and trustworthiness for male and female plastic surgeons during their first encounter in clinic. RESULTS: A total of 316 responses were obtained from 43.4% men and 56.6% women. The mean age of participants was 53.2 years. The highest scores across all metrics of professionalism, competency, trustworthiness, willingness to share information, confidence in the provider, and confidence in surgical outcomes were given to the formal attire with white coat group, with average scores of 4.85, 4.71, 4.69, 4.73, 4.79, and 4.72, respectively. The lowest scores across all metrics belonged to the casual attire group with scores of 3.36, 3.29, 3.31, 3.39, 3.29, and 3.20, respectively. Patients preferred formal attire for young plastic surgeons (P = 0.039). CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that physician attire impacts patients' perception of plastic surgeons regarding their professionalism, competency, and trustworthiness. White coats continue to remain a powerful entity in clinical settings given that attires with white coats were consistently ranked higher.

System-Level Determinants of Access to Flap Reconstruction after Abdominoperineal Resection.

BACKGROUND: Reconstruction following abdominoperineal resection improves outcomes by reducing wound-related complications, particularly in irradiated patients. Little is known regarding system-level factors that impact patients' access to reconstructive surgery following abdominoperineal resection. This study aimed to identify barriers to undergoing reconstruction following abdominoperineal resection. METHODS: Using the National Inpatient Sample database from 2012 to 2014, all encounters with colorectal or anorectal carcinoma patients who underwent abdominoperineal resection were extracted based on International Classification of Disease, Ninth Revision, diagnosis and procedure codes. Multivariable logistic regression analyzed the outcome of undergoing reconstruction. RESULTS: The weighted sample included encounters with 19,205 abdominoperineal resection patients, of whom 1243 (6.5 percent) received a flap. Notable patient-level predictors of receiving a flap included age younger than 55 years (OR, 1.82; 95 percent CI, 1.23 to 2.74; p = 0.003) and neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy (OR, 1.37; 95 percent CI, 1.01 to 1.88; p = 0.041). Race, sex, income level, insurance type, and Elixhauser Comorbidity Index were not associated with increased odds of receiving a flap. For facility-level factors, urban teaching hospitals (OR, 23.6; 95 percent CI, 3.29 to 169.4; p = 0.002) and larger hospital bedsize (OR, 2.64; 95 percent CI, 1.53 to 4.56; p = 0.000) were associated with higher odds of reconstruction. Plastic surgery facility volume was not found to be a significant predictor of undergoing flap reconstruction (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Patients undergoing abdominoperineal resection at academic centers were over 23 times more likely to undergo reconstruction, after adjusting for available confounders. Patients undergoing abdominoperineal resection at smaller, nonacademic centers may not have equitable access to reconstruction despite being appropriate candidates. Given the morbidity of abdominoperineal resection, patients should be referred to large, academic centers to have access to flap reconstruction. CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Risk, III.

Content Evaluation of Integrated Plastic Surgery Residency Program Websites Regarding Sub-internships.

Sub-internships are an integral part of the residency application process for competitive specialties, including plastic and reconstructive surgery (PRS). This study evaluates the quality of online information regarding sub-internships offered by PRS programs. METHODS: All the US integrated PRS residency programs were identified on Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database. Each program's website was assessed for the presence of 4 criteria: mention of a sub-internship offered, contact information of rotation coordinator, learning objectives, and a web page dedicated solely to the sub-internship. Each residency program was assigned a website sub-internship (WSI) score from 0 to 4 accordingly. RESULTS: We identified 81 residency programs. Fifty-two residency program received a score of 0, and 6 programs received a score of 4. The mean WSI score was 1.0 for community-based programs, compared with 0.98 for university-based programs (P = 0.93). There was a correlation between WSI score and number of faculty (r = 0.52; P < 0.0000) and number of residents per year (r = 0.34; P = 0.002). In logistic regression model, number of faculty [odds ratio (OR), 1.18; P = 0.003], large program size (OR, 12.1; P = 0.009), and southeast location (OR, 30.3; P = 0.034) were found to be important predictors for PRS programs to mention at least one criterion. CONCLUSIONS: A majority of the programs did not have any online information available on their websites regarding plastic surgery sub-internships. There is no difference between academic and community-based programs with regard to the quality of information. Programs with more trainees and faculty have higher odds of providing information about sub-internships offered at their institution.

Extraforaminal Vertebral Artery Anomalies and Their Associated Surgical Implications: An Epidemiologic and Anatomic Report on 1000 Patients.

OBJECTIVE: Extraforaminal vertebral anomalies involve entry at cervical transverse foramina other than at C6 and can appear with other anatomic variations along the V2 segment. Such unexpected vessel courses can have implications on surgical planning. We sought to evaluate the incidence of anomalous V2 segment entries, as well as their associations with vessel dominance, medialization, and C7 pedicle width. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study on 1000 consecutive computed tomography angiograms, documenting level and laterality of vessel of entry, as well as vertebral dominance patterns. Patients with rostral C4 anomalies were assessed for medialization. The pedicle widths ipsilateral to caudal C7 anomalies were compared with those of contralateral and matched controls. RESULTS: A total of 157 patients were identified with extraforaminal entries, with 25 having bilateral findings. The most common alternative entry was at C5 (70.3%), followed by C4 (17.6%) and C7 (11.5%). Among patients with unilateral anomalies, there was an increased representation of contralateral vertebral dominance, relative to ipsilateral dominance (79.6% vs 20.4%, P < 0.0001). Among anomalous C4 entries, vertebral medialization was seen along the right (35%) and left sides (23.1%) spanning C6-T1. Among C7 anomalous entries there was no statistical difference in pedicle width. CONCLUSIONS: Extraforaminal anomalies may be more frequent than previously reported and are important considerations during subaxial cervical spine surgery planning. Particular attention should be paid to the contralateral dominance pattern within this subgroup. In patients with anomalous V2 segment entries, adherence to the standard, anatomic landmarks remains desirable.

Public Interest in Textured Breast Implants Recall: A Google Trends Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Large-scale media coverage of health care outcomes can have a profound influence on health care utilization by the general population. Google trends (GT), an online resource, allows for tracking of global search volumes as a proxy for determining public interest. OBJECTIVE: To utilize GT to characterize measurable effects on public interest in breast implant removal procedures and breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma (BIA-ALCL) following March 2019 FDA Advisory Committee Meeting and July 2019 public statements by the FDA and Allergan announcing the voluntary recall of BIOCELL® textured breast implants. METHODS: GT databases of search volumes were collected for terms related to 3 categories including Allergan BIOCELL® textured breast implants, BIA-ALCL, and breast implant removal from January 2004 to October 2019. The short-term and long-term interests were determined by the percent change in monthly search volumes with respect to the announcements from Allergan and FDA Advisory Committee Meeting. RESULTS: Following Allergan's recall announcement, public interest in "textured breast implants" and "allergan breast implant" peaked in July 2019 and rose 456% and 669%, respectively. Public interest in "anaplastic large cell lymphoma breast implant" and "ALCL cancer" rose 200 and 175%, respectively. Long-term interest in all implant removal terms was found to be higher after March 2019 FDA Advisory Committee Meeting than beforehand (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: GT data correlate with shifts in real-world health care utilization and public interest caused by high-profile media coverage, making it a useful tool for providers for real-time prediction of trends in public health in response to observable influences. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE V: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

Insurance type impacts the economic burden and survival of patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma.

OBJECTIVE: Glioblastoma (GBM) carries a high economic burden for patients and caregivers, much of which is associated with initial surgery. The authors investigated the impact of insurance status on the inpatient hospital costs of surgery for patients with GBM. METHODS: The authors conducted a retrospective review of patients with GBM (2010-2015) undergoing their first resection at the University of California, San Francisco, and corresponding inpatient hospital costs. RESULTS: Of 227 patients with GBM (median age 62 years, 37.9% females), 31 (13.7%) had Medicaid, 94 (41.4%) had Medicare, and 102 (44.9%) had private insurance. Medicaid patients had 30% higher overall hospital costs for surgery compared to non-Medicaid patients ($50,285 vs $38,779, p = 0.01). Medicaid patients had higher intensive care unit (ICU; p < 0.01), operating room (p < 0.03), imaging (p < 0.001), room and board (p < 0001), and pharmacy (p < 0.02) costs versus non-Medicaid patients. Medicaid patients had significantly longer overall and ICU lengths of stay (6.9 and 2.6 days) versus Medicare (4.0 and 1.5 days) and privately insured patients (3.9 and 1.8 days, p < 0.01). Medicaid patients had similar comorbidity rates to Medicare patients (67.8% vs 68.1%), and both groups had higher comorbidity rates than privately insured patients (37.3%, p < 0.0001). Only 67.7% of Medicaid patients had primary care providers (PCPs) versus 91.5% of Medicare and 86.3% of privately insured patients (p = 0.009) at the time of presentation. Tumor diameter at diagnosis was largest for Medicaid (4.7 cm) versus Medicare (4.1 cm) and privately insured patients (4.2 cm, p = 0.03). Preoperative (70 vs 90, p = 0.02) and postoperative (80 vs 90, p = 0.03) Karnofsky Performance Scale (KPS) scores were lowest for Medicaid versus non-Medicaid patients, while in subgroup analysis, postoperative KPS score was lowest for Medicaid patients (80, vs 90 for Medicare and 90 for private insurance; p = 0.03). Medicaid patients had significantly shorter median overall survival (10.7 months vs 12.8 months for Medicare and 15.8 months for private insurance; p = 0.02). Quality-adjusted life year (QALY) scores were 0.66 and 1.05 for Medicaid and non-Medicaid patients, respectively (p = 0.036). The incremental cost per QALY was $29,963 lower for the non-Medicaid cohort. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with GBMs and Medicaid have higher surgical costs, longer lengths of stay, poorer survival, and lower QALY scores. This study indicates that these patients lack PCPs, have more comorbidities, and present later in the disease course with larger tumors; these factors may drive the poorer postoperative function and greater consumption of hospital resources that were identified. Given limited resources and rising healthcare costs, factors such as access to PCPs, equitable adjuvant therapy, and early screening/diagnosis of disease need to be improved in order to improve prognosis and reduce hospital costs for patients with GBM.

Immunotherapy for High-Grade Gliomas: A Clinical Update and Practical Considerations for Neurosurgeons.

BACKGROUND: The current standard of care for patients with high-grade gliomas includes surgical resection, chemotherapy, and radiation; but even still most patients experience disease progression and succumb to their illness within a few years of diagnosis. Immunotherapy, which stimulates an anti-tumor immune response, has been revolutionary in the treatment of some hematologic and solid malignancies, generating substantial excitement for its potential for patients with glioblastoma. However, to date, the preclinical success of these approaches against high-grade glioma models has not been replicated in human clinical trials. Moreover, the complex response to these biologically active treatments can complicate management decisions, and the neurosurgical oncology community needs to be actively involved in and up to date on the use of these agents in patients with high-grade glioma. In this review, we discuss the challenges immunotherapy faces for high-grade gliomas, the completed and ongoing clinical trials for the major immunotherapies, and the nuances in management for patients being actively treated with one of these agents. METHODS: We reviewed the literature to summarize the current immunotherapy strategies for high-grade gliomas. RESULTS: Preclinical and clinical trials investigating dendritic cell and peptide vaccines, checkpoint inhibitors, and adoptive T cell therapy are highlighted in this review. CONCLUSIONS: Although immunotherapy has yet to fully fulfill its promise for patients with glioblastoma and improve patient outcomes, there is still excitement that these approaches will eventually lead to durable anti-tumor responses. As neurosurgeons, an understanding of the complex interactions between the standard of care therapies and the other medications used in the treatment arsenal for patients with high-grade brain tumors is crucial to the management of these patients.

Minimally invasive lumbar pedicle screw fixation using cortical bone trajectory - Screw accuracy, complications, and learning curve in 100 screw placements.

Cortical bone trajectory (CBT) is a novel pedicle insertion technique with comparable or superior mechanical properties and reduced invasiveness compared to traditional methods. We describe the screw accuracy, complications, and learning curve associated with CBT use. A prospective cohort study was performed involving 22 patients who underwent lumbar fusion with CBT screw placement. A total of 100 cortical screws were placed. Post-operative CT scans were reviewed to assess the adequacy of screw placement and calculate the incidence of vertebral body and pedicle breaches from cortical screw placement. Technique-related complications were examined. The entire surgical cohort was divided into two groups: early experience (first 11 patients) and late experience (last 11 patients), to study the effect of learning curve on CBT screw placement. Medial pedicle breach was observed in 6/100 cases and lateral vertebral body breach was observed in 1/100 cases. The incidence of durotomy related to the technique was 4.5% (N = 1/22). Post-surgical wound infection was seen in 9.1% of patients (N = 2/22). 66.7% (N = 4/6) of medial pedicle breaches, 100% (N = 1/1) of lateral breaches, 100% (N = 1/1) of CBT technique-related CSF leaks, and 100% (N = 2/2) of wound infections occurred in the early experience phase of our study (p = 0.0945). A shift in surgical technique and greater efficiency over time decreased the incidence of overall complications in the late cohort. The difference, however, did not reach statistical significance. A lateralized starting point for the cortical screw on the pars interarticularis and use of smaller diameter screws resulted in fewer medial pedicle out-fractures and breaches.

Safety and outcomes of resection of butterfly glioblastoma.

OBJECTIVE Butterfly glioblastoma (bGBM) is a rare type of GBM, characterized by a butterfly pattern on MRI studies because of its bihemispheric involvement and invasion of the corpus callosum (CC). There is a profound gap in the knowledge regarding the optimal treatment approach as well as the safety and survival benefits of resection in treating this aggressive brain tumor. In this retrospective study, authors add to our understanding of these tumors by identifying the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with bGBM. METHODS An institutional database was reviewed for GBM cases treated in the period from 2004 to 2014. Records were reviewed to identify adult patients with bGBM. Cases of GBM with invasion of the CC without involvement of the contralateral hemisphere and bilateral GBMs without involvement of the CC were excluded from the study. Patient and tumor characteristics were gleaned from the medical records, and volumetric analysis was performed using T1-weighted MRI studies. RESULTS From among 1746 cases of GBM, 39 cases of bGBM were identified. Patients had a mean age of 57.8 years at diagnosis. Headache and confusion were the most common presenting symptoms (48.7% and 33.3%, respectively). The median overall survival was 3.2 months from diagnosis with an overall 6-month survival rate of 38.1%. Age, Karnofsky Performance Status at diagnosis, preoperative tumor volume, postoperative tumor volume, and extent of resection were found to significantly impact survival in the univariate analysis. On multivariate analysis, preoperative tumor volume and treatment approach of resection versus biopsy were identified as independent prognostic factors regardless of the patient-specific characteristics of age and KPS at diagnosis. Resection and biopsy were performed in 35.9% and 64.1% of patients, respectively. Resection was found to confer a better prognosis than biopsy (HR 0.37, p = 0.009) with a minimum extent of resection of 86% to observe survival benefits (HR 0.054, p = 0.03). The rate of persistent neurological deficits from resection was 7.14%. Patients younger than 70 years had a better prognosis (HR 0.32, p = 0.003). Patients undergoing resection and receiving adjuvant chemoradiation had a better prognosis than patients who lacked one of the three treatment modalities (HR = 0.34, p = 0.015). CONCLUSIONS Resection of bGBM is associated with low persistent neurological deficits, with improvement in survival compared to biopsy. A more aggressive treatment approach involving aggressive resection and adjuvant chemoradiation has significant survival benefits and improves outcome.

Postoperative Delirium in Glioblastoma Patients: Risk Factors and Prognostic Implications.

BACKGROUND: Delirium is a postoperative neurological morbidity in glioblastoma whose risk factors, incidence, and prognostic implications remain undefined. OBJECTIVE: To develop an algorithm using preoperative factors to predict postoperative delirium. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of 554 consecutive patients (mean age = 61.5 yr; 42% female) undergoing first glioblastoma procedure at our institution 2005 to 2011. RESULTS: Postoperative delirium occurred in 7% of patients (n = 38). Patients undergoing biopsy (10%; n = 54) did not experience delirium. In patients undergoing resection (n = 500), multivariate logistic regression identified 5 factors independently predicting postoperative delirium: age, chronic pulmonary disease, psychiatric history, bihemispheric tumors, and tumor size. We developed a score function entitled "GRAD" (Glioblastoma Risk Assessment for Delirium) to stratify patients into risk categories by assigning point(s) to each preoperative factor based on the relative magnitude of its regression coefficient. Point totals were summed for each patient: patients with 0 to 2 (n = 227) and 3 to 7 (n = 221) points were designated as low and high risk with postoperative delirium rates of 2% vs 15%, respectively (chi-square; P < .001), with the model validated using a separate patient cohort. Postoperative delirium lengthened hospital stays (P < .001), decreased likelihood of discharge home (P < .001), and was independently associated with decreased survival (4.5 vs 13.4 mo; hazard ratio = 1.9 [1.2-2.8]) in multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: We developed a model to predict development of postoperative delirium using 2 tumor-specific (bihemispheric tumors and tumor size) and 3 patient-specific (age, psychiatric history, and chronic pulmonary disease) factors. High-risk patients and their families should be counseled preoperatively, and this risk could be considered in the choice of biopsy vs resection, and resection patients should be monitored closely postoperatively.