Index hospital cost of adverse events following thoracic surgery: a systematic review of economic literature.

OBJECTIVES: Adverse events (AEs) following thoracic surgery place considerable strain on healthcare systems. A rigorous evaluation of the economic impact of thoracic surgical AEs remains lacking and is required to understand the value of money of formal quality improvement initiatives. Our objective was to conduct a systematic review of all available literature focused on specific cost of postoperative AEs following thoracic surgery. DESIGN: Systematic review of the economic literature was performed, following recommendations from the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement. DATA SOURCES: An economic search filter developed by the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health was applied, and MEDLINE, Embase and The Cochrane Library were searched from inception to January 2022. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: We included English articles involving adult patients who underwent a thoracic surgical procedure with estimated costs of postoperative complications. Eligible study designs included comparative observational studies, randomised control trials, decision analytic or cost-prediction models, cost analyses, cost or burden of illness studies, economic evaluation studies and systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses of cost analyses and cost of illness studies. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: Two reviewers independently screened titles and abstracts in the first stage and full-text articles of included studies in the second stage. Disagreements during abstract and full-text screening stages were resolved via discussion until a consensus was reached. Studies were appraised for methodological quality using the Critical Appraisal Skills Program checklist. RESULTS: 3349 studies were identified: 20 met inclusion criteria. Most were conducted in the USA (12/20), evaluating AE impact on hospital expenditures (18/20). 68 procedure-specific AE mean costs were characterised (USD$). The most commonly described were anastomotic leak (mean:range) (USD$49 278:$6 176-$133 002) and pneumonia ($12 258:$2608-$34 591) following esophagectomy, and prolonged air leak ($2556:$571-$3573), respiratory failure ($19 062:$11 841-$37 812), empyema ($30 189:$23 784-$36 595), pneumonia ($15 362:$2542-$28 183), recurrent laryngeal nerve injury ($16 420:$4224-$28 616) and arrhythmia ($6835:$5833-$8659) following lobectomy. CONCLUSIONS: Hospital costs associated with AEs following thoracic surgery are substantial and varied. Quantifying costs of AEs enable future economic evaluation studies, which could help prioritising value-directed quality improvement to optimally improve outcomes and reduce costs.

A Novel Multi-Ingredient Supplement Activates a Browning Program in White Adipose Tissue and Mitigates Weight Gain in High-Fat Diet-Fed Mice.

We investigated the effects of a novel multi-ingredient supplement comprised of polyphenol antioxidants and compounds known to facilitate mitochondrial function and metabolic enhancement (ME) in a mouse model of obesity. In this study, 6-week-old male C57/BL6J mice were placed on a high-fat diet (HFD; ~60% fat) for 6 weeks, with subsequent allocation into experimentalgroups for 4 weeks: HFD control, HFD + ME10 (10 components), HFD + ME7 (7 components), HFD + ME10 + EX, HFD + EX (where '+EX' animals exercised 3 days/week), and chow-fed control. After the intervention, HFD control animals had significantly greater body weight and fat mass. Despite the continuation of HFD, animals supplemented with multi-ingredient ME or who performed exercise training showed an attenuation of fat mass and preservation of lean body mass, which was further enhanced when combined (ME+EX). ME supplementation stimulated the upregulation of white and brown adipose tissue mRNA transcripts associated with mitochondrial biogenesis, browning, fatty acid transport, and fat metabolism. In WAT depots, this was mirrored by mitochodrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) protein expression, and increased in vivo fat oxidation measured via CLAMS. ME supplementation also decreased systemic and local inflammation markers. Herein, we demonstrated that novel multi-ingredient nutritional supplements induced significant fat loss independent of physical activity while preserving muscle mass in obese mice. Mechanistically, these MEs appear to act by inducing a browning program in white adipose tissue and decreasing other pathophysiological impairments associated with obesity, including mitochondrial respiration alterations induced by HFD.