Surgeons' involvement in COVID-19 treatment: a practice by a regional core hospital in Japan to avoid physician burnout.

BACKGROUND: To prevent task accumulation on certain divisions, our institution developed a unique system of allocating inpatient treatment of COVID-19 patients to doctors who were not specialized in respiratory infections. The objective of this study was to investigate whether surgeons can be involved in the COVID-19 inpatient treatment without negatively affecting patient outcome, and how such involvement can affect the wellbeing of surgeons. METHODS: There were 300 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and hospitalized from January to June 2021, and 160 of them were treated by the redeployed doctors. They were divided into 3 groups based on the affiliation of the treating doctor. Patient characteristics and outcomes were compared between the groups. In addition, the impact of COVID-19 duty on participating surgeons was investigated from multiple perspectives, and a postduty survey was conducted. RESULTS: There were 43 patients assigned to the Department of Surgery. There were no differences in the backgrounds and outcomes of patients compared with other groups. The surgeon's overtime hours were significantly longer during the duty period, despite no change in the number of operations and the complication rate. The questionnaire revealed that there was a certain amount of mental and physical burden from the COVID-19 duty. CONCLUSION: Surgeons can take part in inpatient COVID-19 treatment without affecting patient outcome. However, as such duty could negatively affect the surgeons' physical and mental wellbeing, further effort is needed to maintain the balance of fulfilling individual and institutional needs.

Is Palliative Gastrojejunostomy for Malignant Gastric Outlet Obstruction an Optimal Choice for Very Elderly Patients? A Report from a Long-Lived Country.

BACKGROUND: Gastrojejunostomy (GJ) is a surgical option for malignant gastric outlet obstruction (mGOO). Confronting an aging society, the demand to treat elderly cancer patients with unresectable malignancies is increasing; however, the benefit of GJ to the very elderly (≥ 80 years of age) has never been investigated. METHODS: This multicenter, retrospective review included 108 patients who had undergone GJ for mGOO from two medical centers in Japan, one of the most long-lived countries. Patients were divided into two groups, with 80 years of age as the cut-off. Various factors, including surgical complications and patient survival, were compared. RESULTS: GJ in the very elderly (aged ≥ 80 years) was associated with a higher incidence of surgical complications (p = 0.049), such as delayed gastric emptying (DGE; p < 0.001), aspiration pneumonia (p = 0.029), and consequent mortality (p = 0.016). Age ≥80 years was also identified as an independent predictor of DGE (odds ratio 6.444, p = 0.005) and survival after GJ (hazard ratio 7.767, p = 0.016). In particular, the median survival time after GJ in the population aged ≥80 years with gastric cancer was only < 2 months. About the surgical procedure, antiperistaltic anastomosis with partial stomach partitioning (PSP) yielded the lowest occurrence rate of DGE (3.4%) and aspiration pneumonia (1.7%). CONCLUSIONS: GJ does not seem to be the optimal choice for very elderly patients, particularly those with gastric cancer. If performed, antiperistaltic anastomosis with PSP should be employed to reduce the surgical complications.

Enhanced-view totally extraperitoneal repair in a patient with incisional hernia after robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Although laparoscopic incisional hernia repair, especially laparoscopic intraperitoneal onlay mesh, is a widely used technique, it can cause serious complications, including mesh erosion, adhesive bowel obstruction, and chronic pain. The enhanced-view totally extraperitoneal (eTEP) technique has been reported to prevent such complications by placing the mesh in the retrorectus space. Here, we report the case of a patient with post-robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (RARP) incisional hernia repaired using the eTEP technique. CASE PRESENTATION: A 67-year-old man, who underwent RARP for prostate cancer 4 years ago developed an incisional hernia. Abdominal computed tomography showed the presence of an epigastric incisional hernia measuring 4 cm long and 3.7 cm wide. We performed an eTEP repair. We closed the hernia defect using a 0 barbed suture and placed a self-gripping mesh measuring 20 cm long and 15 cm wide in the developed retrorectus space with no fixation. There were no postoperative complications, and the patient was discharged on postoperative day 2. CONCLUSIONS: eTEP repair is considered an extremely effective surgical treatment option for incisional hernias because of its few resulting postoperative mesh-and-tacker-related complications.