Chatbot Reliability in Managing Thoracic Surgical Clinical Scenarios.

BACKGROUND: Chatbot use in medicine is growing, and concerns have been raised regarding their accuracy. This study assessed the performance of 4 different chatbots in managing thoracic surgical clinical scenarios. METHODS: Topic domains were identified and clinical scenarios were developed within each domain. Each scenario included 3 stems using Key Feature methods related to diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment. Twelve scenarios were presented to ChatGPT-4 (OpenAI), Bard (recently renamed Gemini; Google), Perplexity (Perplexity AI), and Claude 2 (Anthropic) in 3 separate runs. Up to 1 point was awarded for each stem, yielding a potential of 3 points per scenario. Critical failures were identified before scoring; if they occurred, the stem and overall scenario scores were adjusted to 0. We arbitrarily established a threshold of ≥2 points mean adjusted score per scenario as a passing grade and established a critical fail rate of ≥30% as failure to pass. RESULTS: The bot performances varied considerably within each run, and their overall performance was a fail on all runs (critical mean scenario fails of 83%, 71%, and 71%). The bots trended toward "learning" from the first to the second run, but without improvement in overall raw (1.24 ± 0.47 vs 1.63 ± 0.76 vs 1.51 ± 0.60; P = .29) and adjusted (0.44 ± 0.54 vs 0.80 ± 0.94 vs 0.76 ± 0.81; P = .48) scenario scores after all runs. CONCLUSIONS: Chatbot performance in managing clinical scenarios was insufficient to provide reliable assistance. This is a cautionary note against reliance on the current accuracy of chatbots in complex thoracic surgery medical decision making.

A Rare Occurrence of Rotational Retro-Esophageal Gastric Body Herniation Through a Nissen Fundoplication.

Anti-reflux procedures have become a mainstay in managing gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and hiatal hernia. Unfortunately, post-operative events such as breakdown of the wrap, downward slippage, or transdiaphragmatic herniation of an intact wrap cause these procedures to fail and create complications such as recurrent hiatal hernia and reflux dysphagia, regurgitation, and obstruction requiring revision surgery. We discuss a case of a rotational retro-esophageal herniation of the gastric body through a Nissen fundoplication presenting as obstruction, dysphagia, and regurgitation, highlighting the peculiar nature of this presentation and the ease of misdiagnosis given its rarity.

Critical Analysis of the National Emphysema Treatment Trial Results for Lung-Volume-Reduction Surgery.

The National Emphysema Treatment Trial compared medical treatment of severe pulmonary emphysema with lung-volume-reduction surgery in a multiinstitutional randomized prospective fashion. Two decades later, this trial remains one of the key sources of information we have on the treatment of advanced emphysematous lung disease. The trial demonstrated the short- and long-term effectiveness of surgical intervention as well as the need for strict patient selection and preoperative workup. Despite these findings, the key failure of the trial was an inability to convince the medical community of the value of surgical resection in the treatment of advanced emphysema.

Thoracic Trauma: Injuries, Evaluation, and Treatment.

Thoracic injury is common in high-energy and low-energy trauma, and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Evaluation requires a systematic approach prioritizing airway, respiration, and circulation. Chest injuries have the potential to progress rapidly and require prompt procedural intervention. For the diagnosis of nonemergent injuries, a careful secondary survey is essential. Although medicine and trauma management have evolved throughout the decades, the basics of thoracic trauma care have remained the same.

Transanal Endoscopic Microsurgery for Early Rectal Cancer: A Single-Center Experience.

BACKGROUND: There is debate regarding the appropriate use of transanal endoscopic microsurgery for rectal cancer. OBJECTIVE: This study analyzed our single-center experience with transanal endoscopic microsurgery for early rectal cancer. DESIGN: Medical charts of patients who underwent transanal endoscopic microsurgery were reviewed to determine lesion characteristics, as well as operative and treatment characteristics. Complications and recurrences were recorded. SETTINGS: The study was conducted at a single academic medical center. PATIENTS: Patients with early stage cancer (T1 or T2, N0, and M0) of the rectum were included. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Local and overall recurrence and disease-specific survival were measured. RESULTS: A total of 92 patients were analyzed. Median follow-up was 4.6 years. Negative margins were obtained in 98.9%. Length of stay was 1 day for 95.4% of patients. The complication rate was 10.9% (n = 10), including urinary retention at 4.3% (n = 4) and postoperative bleeding at 4.3% (n = 4). Preoperative staging included 54 at T1 (58.7%) and 38 at T2 (41.3%). Adjuvant therapy was recommended for all of the T2 and select T1 lesions with adverse features on histology. The final pathologic stages of tumors were ypT0 at 8.7% (n = 8), pT1 at 58.7% (n = 54), pT2 at 23.9% (n = 22), and ypT2 at 8.7% (n = 8). The 3-year local recurrence risk was 2.4% (SE = 1.7), and overall recurrence was 6.7% (SE = 2.9). There were no recurrences among patients with complete pathologic response to neoadjuvant therapy. Mean time to recurrence was 2.5 years (SD = 1.43). A total of 89.2% of patients with very low tumors underwent curative resection without a permanent stoma (33/37). The 3-year disease-specific survival rate was 98.6% (95% CI, 90.4%-99.8%), and overall survival rate was 89.4% (95% CI, 79.9%-94.6%). LIMITATIONS: The study was limited by its single-center retrospective experience. CONCLUSIONS: Transanal endoscopic microsurgery provides comparable oncologic outcomes to radical resection in properly selected patients with early rectal cancer. Sphincter preservation rates approach 90% even in patients with very distal rectal cancer.

Comparative Decellularization and Recellularization of Wild-Type and Alpha 1,3 Galactosyltransferase Knockout Pig Lungs: A Model for Ex Vivo Xenogeneic Lung Bioengineering and Transplantation.

BACKGROUND: A novel potential approach for lung transplantation could be to utilize xenogeneic decellularized pig lung scaffolds that are recellularized with human lung cells. However, pig tissues express several immunogenic proteins, notably galactosylated cell surface glycoproteins resulting from alpha 1,3 galactosyltransferase (α-gal) activity, that could conceivably prevent effective use. Use of lungs from α-gal knock out (α-gal KO) pigs presents a potential alternative and thus comparative de- and recellularization of wild-type and α-gal KO pig lungs was assessed. METHODS: Decellularized lungs were compared by histologic, immunohistochemical, and mass spectrometric techniques. Recellularization was assessed following compartmental inoculation of human lung bronchial epithelial cells, human lung fibroblasts, human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (all via airway inoculation), and human pulmonary vascular endothelial cells (CBF) (vascular inoculation). RESULTS: No obvious differences in histologic structure was observed but an approximate 25% difference in retention of residual proteins was determined between decellularized wild-type and α-gal KO pig lungs, including retention of α-galactosylated epitopes in acellular wild-type pig lungs. However, robust initial recellularization and subsequent growth and proliferation was observed for all cell types with no obvious differences between cells seeded into wild-type versus α-gal KO lungs. CONCLUSION: These proof of concept studies demonstrate that decellularized wild-type and α-gal KO pig lungs can be comparably decellularized and comparably support initial growth of human lung cells, despite some differences in retained proteins. α-Gal KO pig lungs are a suitable platform for further studies of xenogeneic lung regeneration.

Three-dimensional scaffolds of acellular human and porcine lungs for high throughput studies of lung disease and regeneration.

Acellular scaffolds from complex whole organs such as lung are being increasingly studied for ex vivo organ generation and for in vitro studies of cell-extracellular matrix interactions. We have established effective methods for efficient de and recellularization of large animal and human lungs including techniques which allow multiple small segments (∼ 1-3 cm(3)) to be excised that retain 3-dimensional lung structure. Coupled with the use of a synthetic pleural coating, cells can be selectively physiologically inoculated via preserved vascular and airway conduits. Inoculated segments can be further sliced for high throughput studies. Further, we demonstrate thermography as a powerful noninvasive technique for monitoring perfusion decellularization and for evaluating preservation of vascular and airway networks following human and porcine lung decellularization. Collectively, these techniques are a significant step forward as they allow high throughput in vitro studies from a single lung or lobe in a more biologically relevant, three-dimensional acellular scaffold.

Mentorship.

The world of medicine is in a state of flux with major and substantive changes in its educational model. Students, residents, and junior attendings can no longer rely entirely on experiential development through clinical immersion. Instead, to attain similar levels of knowledge, technique, and situational comfort, there must be innovations in medical education that take advantage of the experience of mentors. Mentoring has been a part of medicine and surgery since the days of apprenticeship. Mentors must now teach more basic medicine than ever before and adapt to changes in the structure of medical education such as the use of simulation, yet still continue to foster career development among trainees and junior colleagues. For mentoring to succeed and benefit mentees, it must be supported. This patronage starts with each local university or hospital system but eventually must permeate the greater medical culture.

Tracking intraoperative complications.

BACKGROUND: Relatively little is known or understood about the nature of complications that occur during a surgical procedure. Definitions, classification, and documentation are substantive challenges to comprehensive event capture. We hypothesized that our prospective complication database (ie, Surgical Activity Tracking System) would supplement traditional sources of intraoperative complication reporting. STUDY DESIGN: Consecutive patients undergoing surgery on a single general surgical service from June 2005 through May 2010 were selected for analysis. All cases had been entered into the Surgical Activity Tracking System, a prospective complication database that identifies and captures complications in real time, using a specially trained nurse practitioner. Intraoperative complications were grouped into 1 of 9 categories. Operative reports and discharge summaries were analyzed by an independent reviewer to determine if the complication(s) had been documented by a traditional data source. RESULTS: Eight thousand eight hundred and ninety-six operations were performed on 7,729 patients during the study period. One hundred and thirty-seven patients (1.5%) experienced an intraoperative complication. Nonintestinal organ lacerations, inadvertent enterotomies, and hemorrhage were the most common adverse events. The operative reports failed to mention 20 of the 151 complications (13%), and discharge summaries failed to report 22 complications (14%). Some complications, such as inadvertent enterotomy, were almost always reported, but others such as arrhythmia, were only occasionally described (25%). CONCLUSIONS: Our prospective complication tracking system identified a considerable number of complications that were not available in either the operative report or discharge summary. The number of unreported adverse events varied greatly by category, suggesting opportunities for improvement in both complication identification and tracking.