Analysis of the Publication Rate of the Abstracts Presented at a National Gastroenterology Meeting after 6 Years.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Abstract presentations at scientific meetings provide an opportunity to communicate the results of important research. Unfortunately, many abstracts are not published as full manuscripts. At the 73rd scientific meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology in 2008, we evaluated factors associated with the publication of abstracts as manuscripts up to 6.5 years after presentation. METHODS: All abstracts, excluding case reports, presented at the meeting were evaluated. We systematically searched for matching manuscripts indexed in PubMed or EMBASE up to May 2015. We used logistic regression models to determine factors associated with manuscript publication and calculated ORs and 95% CIs. RESULTS: Of the included 791 abstracts, 249 (31.5%) were published as manuscripts within 6.5 years. Oral presentation (OR 2.11; 95% CI 1.15-3.87), multicenter studies (OR 2.67; 95% CI 1.44-4.95), abstracts by University-based authors (OR 1.80; 95% CI 1.20-2.72), and funded research (OR 2.15; 95% CI 1.43-3.23) were more likely to be published. Winning an award at the meeting was not associated with manuscript publication (OR 1.09; 95% CI 0.57-2.06). CONCLUSIONS: There is an urgent need to enhance the methods of disseminating scientific knowledge through publication of abstracts presented at gastroenterology meetings as manuscripts. Mentors should endeavor to encourage their mentees to complete this final stage of their scholarly activities.

Chronic abdominal pain secondary to mesh erosion into cecum following incisional hernia repair: a case report and literature review.

Incisional hernias following abdominal operations are a common complication. Mesh is frequently employed to repair these hernias. Given the popularity of minimally invasive surgery utilizing polypropylene mesh for incisional hernia repair, related complications such postoperative hematoma and seroma, foreign body reaction, organ injury, infection, mesh rejection, and fistula are being noted. Mesh migration is an infrequent occurrence, and is rarely reported in the literature. Those that are usually involve the urinary bladder. In particular, review of literature shows no reports of cases of mesh migration into the cecum several years after an open type incisional hernia repair. We present a case of delayed transmural mesh migration from the abdominal wall into the cecum presenting as chronic abdominal pain.