RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Gallbladder perforation and gallstone leakage are frequent complications following laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC). Failure to remove gallstones may result in several issues that manifest immediately or years later. The goal of this study was to evaluate the attitudes of surgeons and the procedures used by them to deal with gallstone spillage during LC. METHODS: A cross-sectional design was followed. Surgeons in nine healthcare facilities in the Qassim region of Saudi Arabia were approached through non-probability convivence sampling and the survey was distributed in each of the general surgery divisions. The study included general surgeons who currently performed LC and incomplete responses and interns were excluded. A self-administered questionnaire was developed with 18 questions regarding demographics, center, and designation at the hospital, surgeons' experience of LC, and exposure to gallstone spillage. Furthermore, items regarding knowledge, attitude, and self-reported practices related to gallstone spillage such as incidence, complications, and intervention taken to prevent gallstone spillage were also included. The level of significance was set at P <0.05. RESULTS: There were 82 participants of both genders, including consultants, specialists, and residents. While only 23 (28%) participants had actually observed patients with complications from spilled stones, 46 (56.1%) participants were aware of this possibility, 53 (64.6%) deemed it inappropriate to bring up gallstone spillage when securing consent for LC, and 67 (81.7%) believed that such an incident needed to be documented in the operation notes. Only 11 (13.4%) thought that the complications arising out of the unretrieved gallstones should fall under the legal purview of the operative surgeon. There were very few complications of spilled gallstones that the participants were aware of, and none of them anticipated problems to arise more than three years after LC. CONCLUSIONS: Awareness of the risks associated with gallstone spillage during LC needs to be raised, and it is imperative to standardize the practices related to their management.
RESUMEN
Background Hemorrhage after trauma is the second leading cause of death in patients in the prehospital environment, and intervention by bystanders before the arrival of professional rescuers has the potential to save lives in such circumstances. No studies have been conducted in Saudi Arabia till date to assess the knowledge and awareness of bleeding control by bystanders. Hence, this study was conducted with an aim to assess the level of awareness, attitude, and willingness toward bleeding control by bystanders in Riyadh city, the capital of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Methodology This is an observational cross-sectional survey design that was conducted from July 2022 to August 2022 using an electronic questionnaire targeting populations who live in Riyadh city. MS Excel 2022 was used for data entry and coding, while SPSS Version 26 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY) was used for data analysis. Results In this study, 585 adults from Riyadh city were recruited. Among the participants, 62.9% of them were between 16 and 26 years of age; 55.4% were males and 90.3% were Saudi Arabian citizens. Of the participants, 76.1% reported that they did not have any experience in participation in bleeding control related activity. Fear of causing more harm to the patients by attempting bleeding control was expressed by 65.1%. In general, 40.2% of the participants have adequate knowledge considering controlling of bleeding in an emergency setting. Higher level of education and having a previous first aid training were associated with better knowledge significantly (p=0.001 and 0.012, respectively). Conclusion There is a great need to improve the level of awareness about the role of bystanders in bleeding control and to design community-level activities to popularize this important life-saving skill.
