Oversewing the Staple Line: Does It Safe to Prevent Leakage?

Introduction: The staple line (SL) leak remains one of the most serious complications after laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG). The present study aims to determine whether reinforcing the SL with sutures is effective in maintaining tissue integrity. Materials and Methods: LSG Specimens of 60 patients were ex vivo studied. The specimens were divided into three groups: In group 1, the entire SL was reinforced, while the upper half part of the SL was reinforced from fundus to antrum in group 2. The SL was not reinforced in group 3. Then, the pressure inside the sample was increased, and the bursting pressure location and pressure value during the bursting were recorded. Results: The bursting pressure was significantly higher in entire and half oversewed SL groups than the none reinforced group (group 1: 115 mmHg [95-170]; group 2: 95 mmHg [80-120]; group 3: 40 mmHg [22-60], respectively, [P < .001]). The most common site of bursting was in the middle ⅓ of SL (35, 53.8%), followed by the proximal ⅓ part of SL (18, 27.7%), and the distal ⅓ part of SL (12, 18.5%), respectively. The bursting site was significantly more frequent in the corpus than the other parts of the SL (P = .013). Conclusion: Reinforcing the SL with sutures preserves tissue integrity. Although bursting was most frequently observed in the corpus region ex vivo, the fact that almost all real-life leaks develop in the area close to the Angle of His. This situation suggests that strengthening the suture line with reinforcement alone will not be protective enough against leaks in the fundus line, and factors such as tissue ischemia may be considered.

CNN-based deep learning method for predicting the disease response to the Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy (NAC) treatment in breast cancer.

Objective: The objective of the study is to evaluate the performance of CNN-based proposed models for predicting patients' response to NAC treatment and the disease development process in the pathological area. The study aims to determine the main criteria that affect the model's success during training, such as the number of convolutional layers, dataset quality and depended variable. Method: The study uses pathological data frequently used in the healthcare industry to evaluate the proposed CNN-based models. The researchers analyze the classification performances of the models and evaluate their success during training. Results: The study shows that using deep learning methods, particularly CNN models, can offer strong feature representation and lead to accurate predictions of patients' response to NAC treatment and the disease development process in the pathological area. A model that predicts 'miller coefficient', 'tumor lymph node value', 'complete response in both tumor and axilla' values with high accuracy, which is considered to be effective in achieving complete response to treatment, has been created. Estimation performance metrics have been obtained as 87%, 77% and 91%, respectively. Conclusion: The study concludes that interpreting pathological test results with deep learning methods is an effective way of determining the correct diagnosis and treatment method, as well as the prognosis follow-up of the patient. It provides clinicians with a solution to a large extent, particularly in the case of large, heterogeneous datasets that can be challenging to manage with traditional methods. The study suggests that using machine learning and deep learning methods can significantly improve the performance of interpreting and managing healthcare data.

Analysis of Ambulatory Proctologic Surgery for Simple Anal Fistulas in Terms of Recovery, Complications, Recurrence, and Cost.

Background Ambulatory anorectal surgeries have increased in the last few years. This clinical study aimed to compare general operating room conditions with outpatient procedures for simple anal fistulas in terms of healing success, recurrence, cost, complications, and sustainability. Methodology Only primary fistulotomy and seton application for simple anal fistulas were retrospectively analyzed. Results Two-hundred fifty patients (73.7%) were male, and 89 (26.3%) were female. Sixty patients (17.7%) were treated in the operating room, and 279 (82.3%) were treated in the outpatient clinic conditions. Of the ambulatory surgeries, 160 patients underwent fistulotomy and 119 patients loose seton. On the other hand, 34 patients underwent fistulotomy and 26 patients loose seton in operating room conditions. No significant difference was found between the groups according to the distribution of age, gender, complications, and recurrence (P > 0.05). Cost-effectiveness assessment according to the place (ambulatory/operating room) and type of operation (fistulotomy/loose seton) reveals that ambulatory surgery provides significantly more savings (P < 0.001). Conclusions For simple anal fistulas, ambulatory anorectal surgery is a safe approach that can be performed at a lower cost than operating room conditions.

Comparison of scoring systems regarding the gender as a parameter with the traditional scoring systems for predicting appendicitis.

Although acute appendicitis remains the most common cause of acute abdomen in General Surgery practice, negative appendectomy rates are still high in particularly female patients. Appendicitis scoring systems considering gender can help the clinician to reduce negative appendectomy rates in females. This present study aims to compare the Lintula, Ripasa, Fenyo-Lindberg scoring systems, which use gender as a variable, with the Alvarado, Karaman, scoring systems to evaluate which CSS is more successful in the differential diagnosis of appendicitis in females. We analyzed the records of the patients operated on with a prediagnosis of acute appendicitis in our clinic between 2020 and 2021, retrospectively. Alvarado, adult appendicitis score (AAS), appendicitis inflammatory response score (AIRS), Ripasa, Karaman, Lintula, and Fenyo Lindberg scores were calculated for each patient. The patients were divided into two groups as male and female, according to gender. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to identify the best cut-off value and assess the performance of the test score for appendicitis. Three hundred and sixty-three patients were included in the study. One hundred seventy-two (47.4%) of the patients were male, and 191 (52.6%) were female. Alvarado and AAS were the most valuable score in female (AUC: 0.805, sensitivity: 0.63, specificity: 0.83; and area under curve (AUC): 0.794, Sensitivity 0.71, Specificity: 0.76, respectively), male group (AUC: 0.828, Sensitivity: 0.71, Specificity: 0.83; and AUC: 0.834, Sensitivity 0.74, Specificity: 0.77, respectively), and when patients were not categorized by gender (AUC: 0.818, Sensitivity: 0.67 Specificity: 0.83; and AUC: 0.794, Sensitivity 0.71, Specificity: 0.76, respectively). Although the Alvarado scoring system is the first defined appendicitis scoring system, it seems as superior to the many scoring systems defined after it in predicting appendicitis, even in female patients.

Diagnostic Accuracy Rates of Appendicitis Scoring Systems for the Stratified Age Groups.

Background: Many scoring systems have been developed for acute appendicitis, which is the most common emergent disorder in surgical practice. Considering the physiological changes and chronic diseases occurring with advancing age, an applied scoring system may not produce the same score in similar patients in all age groups. Objectives: We aimed to compare the predictive values of scoring systems in different age groups. Methods: In this prospective study, the patients operated on in our clinic with a prediagnosis of acute appendicitis between March 2020 and March 2021 were included. We divided them into three age groups as 18-45 years (group 1), 46-65 years (group 2), and >65 years (group 3). We compared the scores of the nine acute appendicitis scoring systems most commonly used in the literature for these age groups. Results: A total of 203 patients were included in our study. The Alvarado scoring system yielded the most accurate results for group 1, whereas the Fenyo-Linberg scoring system was the most accurate system for group 2 and the Eskelinen scoring system for group 3. Conclusion: Age should be considered as a major parameter during the selection of the scoring system to be applied for patients with prediagnosis of acute appendicitis. Our study revealed the Alvarado and the Fenyo-Lindberg scoring systems as the most accurate systems for the differential diagnosis of appendicitis in the 18-45 and 46-65 years age groups, respectively. Although we found the Eskelinen scoring system as the most accurate one in the >65 years age group, the confidence intervals indicated that it may not be appropriate for use alone in this group.

Management of solitary cecum diverticulitis - Single-Center Experience.

<b> Objective: </b> Cecal diverticulitis may be encountered as a real etiological factor in 1/300 appendectomies. Differential diagnosis of acute appendicitis and cecal diverticulitis is crucial because of the different treatment methods. Our aim is to reveal the importance of distinguishing acute appendicitis from cecal diverticulitis. <p> <b>Methods: </b> The data of patients who were admitted to the hospital between 2015 and 2019 with the complaint of abdominal pain and then finally diagnosed with colon diverticular disease, colon diverticulitis, or acute appendicitis, analyzed retrospectively. <p><b>Results: </b> A total of 19 cecum diverticulitis patients were detected during surgery for acute appendicitis or during clinical and radiological evaluation. 1247 appendectomies were evaluated; the final diagnosis was observed as cecal diverticulitis in 5 patients (0,4%). One hundred nineteen patients diagnosed with colonic diverticulitis at admission were evaluated, while 105 (88,2%) of them had left-sided diverticulitis, 14 (11,7%) of them had solitary cecal diverticulitis. All of the solitary cecal diverticulitis patients were treated conservatively, except one patient who has Hinchey 3 diverticulitis.<p><b> Conclusion: </b> Differential diagnosis of cecum diverticulitis with acute appendicitis is important because cecum diverticulitis can be managed as conservatively in most cases. In order to prevent unnecessary surgical interventions, this importance has increased, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic period.