Intercostal Nerve Cryoablation Reduces Opioid Use and Length of Stay Without Increasing Adverse Events: A Retrospective Cohort Study of 5442 Patients Undergoing Surgical Correction of Pectus Excavatum.

OBJECTIVE: To examine differences in opioid use, length of stay, and adverse events after minimally invasive correction of pectus excavatum (MIRPE) with and without intercostal nerve cryoablation. BACKGROUND: Small studies show that intraoperative intercostal nerve cryoablation provides effective analgesia with no large-scale evaluations of this technique. METHODS: The pediatric health information system database was used to perform a retrospective cohort study comparing patients undergoing MIRPE at children's hospitals before and after the initiation of cryoablation. The association of cryoablation use with inpatient opioid use was determined using quantile regression with robust standard errors. Difference in risk-adjusted length of stay between the cohorts was estimated using negative binomial regression. Odds of adverse events between the two cohorts were compared using logistic regression with a generalized estimating equation. RESULTS: A total of 5442 patients underwent MIRPE at 44 children's hospitals between 2016 and 2022 with 1592 patients treated after cryoablation was introduced at their hospital. Cryoablation use was associated with a median decrease of 80.8 (95% CI: 68.6-93.0) total oral morphine equivalents as well as a decrease in estimated median length of stay from 3.5 [3.2-3.9] days to 2.5 [2.2-2.9] days ( P value: 0.016). Cryoablation use was not significantly associated with an increase in any studied adverse events. CONCLUSIONS: Introduction of cryoablation for perioperative analgesia was associated with decreased inpatient opioid use and length of stay in a large sample with no change in adverse events. This novel modality for perioperative analgesia offers a promising alternative to traditional pain management in thoracic surgery.

Disparities in Telemedicine Use Among Children Seen in Surgical Clinics During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Experience of One Tertiary Care Freestanding Children's Hospital.

Background: Telemedicine use dramatically increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the effects of telemedicine on pre-existing disparities in pediatric surgical access have not been well described. We describe our center's early experience with telemedicine and disparities in patients' access to outpatient surgical care. Methods: A retrospective study of outpatient visits within all surgical divisions from May to December 2020 was conducted. We assessed the rates of scheduled telemedicine visits during that period, as well as the rate of completing a visit after it has been scheduled. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses were used to test for associations between these rates and patient characteristics. Results: Over the study period, 109,601 visits were scheduled. Telemedicine accounted for 6.1% of all visits with lower cancellation rates than in-person visits (26.9% vs. 34.7%). More scheduled telemedicine encounters were observed for older patients, White, English speakers, those with private insurance, and those living in rural areas. Lower odds of telemedicine visit completion were observed among patients with public insurance (odds ratio [OR] 0.7, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.64-0.77), Spanish language preference (OR 0.84, 95% CI 0.72-0.97), and those living in rural areas (OR 0.73, 95% CI 0.64-0.84). In contrast, higher odds of telemedicine visit completion were associated with a higher Social Deprivation Index score (OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.27-1.58). Telemedicine visit completion was also associated with increasing community-level income and distance from the hospital. Conclusions: Telemedicine use for outpatient surgical care was generally low during the peak of the pandemic, and certain populations were less likely to utilize it. These findings call for further action to bridge gaps in telemedicine use.

Discordance between Subjective and Objective Assessments of Activity after Pediatric Appendectomy.

BACKGROUND: Physical activity recovery after pediatric surgery can be assessed using objective measures such as step counts, but practice currently relies on subjective assessment by proxy. It is unclear how subjective and objective assessments of activity relate. We compared caregiver assessment of return to normal physical activity after pediatric appendectomy to step count recovery measured by a Fitbit. METHODS: Pediatric patients who underwent appendectomy were recruited between 2020 and 2022 to be monitored for 21 d with a Fitbit. Patients were grouped by the postoperative day (POD) (7, 14, or 21) their caregiver first reported their activity was "back to normal." Objective return to normal step count was estimated for each group by modeling the inflection point from increasing steps to a plateau. These measures were determined discordant if the subjective report remained outside the modeled 95% confidence interval (CI) for the day the group plateaued. RESULTS: Thirty-nine simple appendicitis and 40 complicated appendicitis patients were recruited. Among simple appendicitis patients, daily steps plateaued on POD 10.8 (95% CI 7.4-14.3), POD 14.0 (95% CI 11.0-17.1), and POD 11.1 (95% CI 6.9-15.3) for the day 7, day 14, and day 21 groups, respectively. Complicated appendicitis groups plateaued on POD 12.8 (95% CI 8.7-16.9), POD 15.2 (95% CI 11.1-19.3), and POD 16.7 (95% CI 12.3-21.0), respectively. Significant discordance was observed between subjective and objective assessments for the day 7 and day 14 simple groups and for the day 7 complicated group. CONCLUSIONS: There was significant discordance between caregiver and accelerometer-assessed activity recovery after pediatric surgery. Development of objective measures of recovery could help standardize assessment of children's recovery after surgery.

Consumer Wearables Define a Normative Recovery Trajectory Following the Modified Nuss Procedure.

INTRODUCTION: The modified Nuss procedure is an elective procedure associated with a lengthy recovery, uncontrolled pain, and risk of infrequent, yet life-threatening complications. The absence of objective measures of normative postoperative recovery creates uncertainty about the postdischarge period, which remains highly dependent on the patients' and their caregivers' expectations and management of recovery. We aimed to describe an objective-normative, physical activity recovery trajectory after the modified Nuss procedure, using step counts from the Fitbit. METHODS: This observational study enrolled children ≤18 y with pectus excavatum who underwent the modified Nuss procedure from 2021 to 2022. The Fitbit was worn for 21 postoperative days. Postdischarge outcomes and health-care utilization were evaluated. For patients without postoperative complications, piecewise linear regression analysis was conducted to generate a normative recovery trajectory model of daily step counts. RESULTS: Of 80 patients enrolled, 66 (86%) met eligibility criteria (mean age, 15.1 ± 1.3 y; 89.4% male, 62.1% non-Hispanic White). The mean number of telephone and electronic message encounters regarding concerns with the patient's recovery within 30 d postoperatively was 2.1 (standard deviation = 2.7). Ten patients (15.2%) returned to the emergency department (ED) within the 30-d postoperative period. Seven patients (10.6%) presented to the ED one time, and three patients (4.5%) presented to the ED twice. Thirty-day readmission rate was four patients (6.0%). Piecewise regression model showed that patients without complications steadily increased their daily step count on each postoperative day and plateaued on day 18. CONCLUSIONS: We have developed a normative recovery trajectory following the modified Nuss procedure using step count data collected by a consumer wearable device. This offers the potential to inform preoperative patient expectations and reduce avoidable health-care utilization through informed preoperative counseling, thus laying the ground work for the use of consumer wearable devices as a postdischarge remote monitoring tool.

A Call to Expand the Scope of Digital Phenotyping.

Digital phenotyping refers to near-real-time data collection from personal digital devices, particularly smartphones, to better quantify the human phenotype. Methodology using smartphones is often considered the gold standard by many for passive data collection within the field of digital phenotyping, which limits its applications mainly to adults or adolescents who use smartphones. However, other technologies, such as wearable devices, have evolved considerably in recent years to provide similar or better quality passive physiologic data of clinical relevance, thus expanding the potential of digital phenotyping applications to other patient populations. In this perspective, we argue for the continued expansion of digital phenotyping to include other potential gold standards in addition to smartphones and provide examples of currently excluded technologies and populations who may uniquely benefit from this technology.

Association of Operative Volume and Odds of Surgical Complication for Patients Undergoing Repair of Pectus Excavatum at Children's Hospitals.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether procedure-specific provider volume is associated with outcomes for patients undergoing repair of pectus excavatum at tertiary care children's hospitals. STUDY DESIGN: We performed a cohort study of patients undergoing repair of pectus excavatum between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2019, at children's hospitals using the Pediatric Health Information System database. The main exposures were the pectus excavatum repair volume quartile of the patient's hospital and the pectus excavatum repair volume category of their surgeon. Our primary outcome was surgical complication, identified using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification, and International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification codes from Pediatric Health Information System. Secondary outcomes included high-cost admission and extended length of stay. RESULTS: In total, 7183 patients with an average age of 15.2 years (SD 2.0), 83% male, 74% non-Hispanic White, 68% no comorbidities, 72% private insurance, and 82% from metro areas were analyzed. Compared with the lowest-volume (≤10 cases/year) quartile of hospitals, patients undergoing repair of pectus excavatum at hospitals in the second (>10-18 cases/year), third (>18-26 cases/year), and fourth (>26 cases/year) volume quartiles had decreased odds of complication of OR 0.52 (CI 0.34-0.82), 0.51 (CI 0.33-0.78), and 0.41 (CI 0.27-0.62), respectively. Patients with pectus excavatum who underwent repair by surgeons in the second (>1-5 cases/year), third (>5-10 cases/year), and fourth (>10 cases/year) volume categories had decreased odds of complication of OR 0.91 (CI 0.68-1.20), OR 0.73 (CI 0.51-1.04), and OR 0.55 (CI 0.39-0.76), respectively, compared with the lowest-volume (≤1 case/year) category of surgeons. CONCLUSIONS: Procedure-specific case volume is an important factor when considering providers for elective surgery, even among specialized centers providing comprehensive patient care.

Weight gain and resource utilization in infants after fundoplication versus gastrojejunostomy.

PURPOSE: There is wide practice variation in the use of laparoscopic fundoplication (LF) versus gastrojejunostomy (GJ) tube insertion for children who do not tolerate gastric feeds. Using weight gain as an objective proxy of adequate nutrition, we sought to evaluate the difference in weight gain between LF and GJ. METHODS: A retrospective, cohort study was conducted of patients ≤ 2 years who underwent LF or GJ between 2014 and 2019 at a single institution. Patient characteristics, change in weight 1-year post-procedure and frequency of unplanned healthcare utilization encounters were collected and examined. RESULTS: A total of 125 patients (50.4%LF, 49.6%GJ) were identified. Adjusted modeling demonstrated that on average, there was an additional 0.85-unit increase in weight-for-age Z scores in the LF compared to the GJ cohort (p = 0.01). The GJ cohort had significantly more unplanned healthcare utilization encounters (4.2, SD 3.4) compared to LF (3.0, SD 3.1) (p = 0.03). Furthermore, the GJ cohort underwent an average of 3.3 planned GJ exchanges within 1-year post-procedure. CONCLUSION: In the first year post-operatively, LF is associated with increased weight gain and fewer unplanned and overall healthcare encounters compared to GJ. Long-term outcomes including weight gain and quality-of-life measures should be studied to develop standardized guidelines for this common clinical scenario.

Utility of Wearable Sensors to Assess Postoperative Recovery in Pediatric Patients After Appendectomy.

BACKGROUND: Despite more than two million pediatric operations performed in the United States annually, normal postoperative recovery remains difficult to define. Wearable sensors that assess physical activity and vital signs in real time represent a tool to assess postoperative recovery. This study examined the use of a wearable, the FitBit Inspire HR, to describe recovery in children after appendectomy and to determine the sensitivity of wearable data to distinguish disease severity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Children 3-18 y old undergoing appendectomy in a tertiary children's hospital were invited to participate. Participants wore the FitBit Inpire HR after surgery for 21 d. t-tests compared daily step counts, and piecewise linear regression models were fit to examine recovery trajectories for patients with simple and complicated appendicitis. RESULTS: Thirty-two patients were enrolled, and 26 met eligibility criteria. Nine (35%) children had complicated appendicitis, and 14 (54%) were female; the mean age was 9.1 y (standard deviation: 2.9). Four hundred nineteen postoperative days were captured (range: 8-22 d; median: 16 d). Step counts increased after surgery; however, piecewise models showed that patients with simple appendicitis had a more rapid increase (P < 0.01) and reached a plateau (approximately 8000 steps/d) on postoperative day 9, whereas patients with complicated appendicitis did not reach a plateau and had lower step counts during the entire 21-postoperative day period (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Recovery in children after surgery can be characterized using wearables, which can also distinguish recovery trajectories based on disease severity. Establishing such "normative" recovery patterns may lead to earlier detection of complications.

A critical threshold for global pediatric surgical workforce density.

PURPOSE: 1.7 billion children lack access to surgical care, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). The pediatric surgical workforce density (PSWD), an indicator of surgical access, correlates with survival of complex pediatric surgical problems. To determine if PSWD also correlates with population-level health outcomes for children, we compared PSWD with pediatric-specific mortality rates and determined the PSWD associated with improved survival. METHODS: Using medical licensing registries, pediatric surgeons practicing in 26 countries between 2015 and 2019 were identified. Countries' PSWD was calculated as the ratio of pediatric surgeons per 100,000 children. The correlation between neonatal, infant and under 5 mortality rates and PSWD was assessed using Spearman's correlations and piecewise linear regression models. RESULTS: Four LIC, eight L-MIC, ten UMIC and four HIC countries, containing 420 million children, were analyzed. The median PSWD by income group was 0.03 (LIC), 0.12 (L-MIC), 1.34 (UMIC) and 2.13 (HIC). PSWD strongly correlated with neonatal (0.78, p < 0.001), infant (0.82, p < 0.001) and under 5 (0.83, p < 0.001) mortality rates. Survival improved with increasing PSWD to a threshold of 0.37. CONCLUSION: PSWD correlates with pediatric population mortality rates, with significant improvements in survival with PSWD > 0.37. Currently, PSWD in LMICs is inadequate to meet UN Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 for child mortality.

Conductance-Based Biophysical Distinction and Microfluidic Enrichment of Nanovesicles Derived from Pancreatic Tumor Cells of Varying Invasiveness.

Diagnostics based on exosomes and other extracellular vesicles (EVs) are emerging as strategies for informing cancer progression and therapies, since the lipid content and macromolecular cargo of EVs can provide key phenotypic and genotypic information on the parent tumor cell and its microenvironment. We show that EVs derived from more invasive pancreatic tumor cells that express high levels of tumor-specific surface proteins and are composed of highly unsaturated lipids that increase membrane fluidity, exhibit significantly higher conductance versus those derived from less invasive tumor cells, based on dielectrophoresis measurements. Furthermore, through specific binding of the EVs to gold nanoparticle-conjugated antibodies, we show that these conductance differences can be modulated in proportion to the type as well as level of expressed tumor-specific antigens, thereby presenting methods for selective microfluidic enrichment and cytometry-based quantification of EVs based on invasiveness of their parent cell.

Effective encapsulation and biological activity of phosphorylated chemotherapeutics in calcium phosphosilicate nanoparticles for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Drug resistant cancers like pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) are difficult to treat, and nanoparticle drug delivery systems can overcome some of the limitations of conventional systemic chemotherapy. In this study, we demonstrate that FdUMP and dFdCMP, the bioactive, phosphorylated metabolites of the chemotherapy drugs 5-FU and gemcitabine, can be encapsulated into calcium phosphosilicate nanoparticles (CPSNPs). The non-phosphorylated drug analogs were not well encapsulated by CPSNPs, suggesting the phosphate modification is essential for effective encapsulation. In vitro proliferation assays, cell cycle analyses and/or thymidylate synthase inhibition assays verified that CPSNP-encapsulated phospho-drugs retained biological activity. Analysis of orthotopic tumors from mice treated systemically with tumor-targeted FdUMP-CPSNPs confirmed the in vivo up take of these particles by PDAC tumor cells and release of active drug cargos intracellularly. These findings demonstrate a novel methodology to efficiently encapsulate chemotherapeutic agents into the CPSNPs and to effectively deliver them to pancreatic tumor cells.

Lysosomal degradation of CD44 mediates ceramide nanoliposome-induced anoikis and diminished extravasation in metastatic carcinoma cells.

The ceramide nanoliposome (CNL) has shown promise in being able to treat a variety of primary tumors. However, its potential for treating metastatic cancer remains unknown. In this study, we demonstrate that CNL increases anoikis while preventing cancer cell extravasation under both static and physiological fluid flow conditions. Mechanistically, CNL limits metastases by decreasing CD44 protein levels in human breast and pancreatic cancer cells via lysosomal degradation of CD44, independent of palmitoylation or proteasome targeting. siRNA down-regulation of CD44 mimics CNL-induced anoikis and diminished extravasation of cancer cells. Taken together, our data indicate that ceramide limits CD44-dependent cancer cell migration, suggesting that CNL could be used to prevent and treat solid tumor metastasis.

Rethinking hospital postoperative resource use: A national analysis of pediatric appendectomy patients admitted to children's hospitals.

BACKGROUND: The increased use of remote monitoring and telemedicine support may help alleviate the need for some of the postoperative inpatient hospital care and reduce health care costs, but little is known about current postoperative hospital resource use patterns. We aim to describe hospital resources use patterns in pediatric patients postappendectomy for complicated appendicitis and to evaluate the potential of earlier discharge with remote monitoring. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study using the Pediatric Health Information System database for patients who underwent laparoscopic appendectomy for complicated appendicitis between 2016 and 2021. Health care use/costs (antibiotics, intravenous fluids [proxy for diet], analgesics, laboratory studies, and imaging tests) were determined using administrative billing data. Potentially avoidable days were defined as nondischarge days without codes for intravenous opioid pain medication or intravenous fluids. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were used. RESULTS: In total, 24,165 patients were included: 8,300 patients (34.3%) had at least 1 potentially avoidable hospitalization day, totaling 13,970 days or 14.2% of all hospitalization days. Median hospitalization cost was $19,434 [$15,658-$25,157], with accommodation and operating room being the greatest contributors. Public insurance and minority races and ethnicities were associated with greater odds of potentially avoidable days. More than 80% of hospitalized patients had intravenous antibiotics through 10 days postoperatively. More than 20% received opioids daily. CONCLUSIONS: More than one third of the patients who underwent laparoscopic appendectomy for complicated appendicitis could have had at least 1 potentially avoidable hospitalization day. Remote monitoring and telemedicine support should be explored and could help with earlier discharge and lower costs.

A Novel Pediatric Surgery Division Incentive Program Engaging Faculty, Advanced Practice Providers and Staff Around a Single Financial Growth Target.

BACKGROUND: Productivity-based financial incentive programs for faculty are common. We implemented a novel Division wide clinical productivity incentive sharing professional fee collections across faculty, nurses, and staff with half of bonuses reserved to be given out proportionally to achievement of the annual growth target. METHODS: A novel bonus plan was formulated to incentivize collection of professional fees to achieve a 15% annual growth target. The 15% was divided equally between the clinical provider, the responsible provider's center(s) of excellence, and all Division members. 50% of the bonus pool was paid out monthly and the remaining 50% was held for an end of the year payout proportional to achievement of the Divisional professional fee collection annual growth target. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: During the initial year of the program, overall Division collections and charges grew 30% and 17%, respectively. Average monthly bonuses paid through the new incentive program for faculty, advanced practice providers, and staff were $1,700, $700, and $200, respectively. The program cost $525,000 in additional bonuses over the previous year while the Division saw an increase of 2 million dollars in collections over the previous year. CONCLUSION: A clinical productivity incentive program based upon professional fee collections distributed across faculty, nurses, and staff was feasible and successful in its first year. Collections increased by a significantly higher percentage than charges, we believe collections incentive including support staff will be most useful in practices with lower rates of charge collection. Further study is needed to measure the effects of different components of the program. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV. STUDY TYPE: Cost Effectiveness Study.

Fluorescence-guided surgery: National trends in adoption and application in pediatric surgery.

BACKGROUND: Fluorescence-guided surgery (FGS) with indocyanine green (ICG) is a rapidly diffusing surgical innovation, but its utilization in pediatrics remains unknown. We present a cross-sectional descriptive analysis of trends from a national database. METHODS: The Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) database was queried for patient encounters between January 2016 and July 2021 with an associated ICG administration within 3 days prior to surgery. All procedure codes from each encounter were reviewed by two surgeons to determine the most likely associated FGS procedure and assign an operative category. RESULTS: 1270 encounters were identified from 38 participating hospitals. The mean patient age (SD) was 8.3 (6.4) years, 54.5% were male, 63.8% were white, and 30.1% were Hispanic. The most common categories for ICG use were neurosurgery (21.3%), biliary (18.3%), perfusion (14.8%), urology (12.5%), gastrointestinal (10.8%), ophthalmology (8.8%), and thoracic (5.6%). Utilization over time increased for some categories (thoracic, visceral perfusion, and neurological procedures) or remained stable for other categories. Overall ICG utilization has increased in 2020 (n = 314) compared to 2016 (N = 83). The number of centers utilizing ICG has also increased from 14 hospitals in 2016 to 29 hospitals in 2020 though adoption remains unevenly distributed, with 5 high-utilization hospitals accounting for 56.8% of all ICG FGS cases. CONCLUSION: ICG is being used across a wide variety of pediatric surgical disciplines. Trends over time show increasingly frequent adoption across the country, with a few high-volume centers driving the innovation. Fluorescence-guided surgery is commercially available and is becoming more commonplace for pediatric surgeons. Dedicated efforts will now be needed to assess outcomes using this promising technology. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV. STUDY TYPE: Retrospective study.

Association between appendiceal stump closure method and post-operative bowel obstruction after laparoscopic appendectomy.

BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic appendectomy is one of the most common urgent pediatric surgical operations. Endoscopic surgical staplers and pre-tied endoloop ligatures are both routinely used for closure of the appendiceal stump in children. Practice patterns vary for a number of reasons, including cost, size, and ease of use. While stapling is standard for some pediatric surgeons, others believe that staples can act as a nidus for small bowel obstruction (SBO). However, studies comparing closure methods have been conflicting in their results and limited in size. Therefore, we aim to determine if there is an association between appendiceal stump closure method and SBO using a national comparative pediatric database. METHODS: We queried the Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) for patients ages 3-18 years who underwent laparoscopic appendectomy for appendicitis between 1/1/2016 - 12/31/2020. We included hospitals that had greater than 50 patients with billing data and excluded patients with inflammatory bowel disease and simultaneous abdominal operations. We used billing data for the patient's appendectomy to determine if a stapler or a suture ligature was used during the case. Our primary outcome of interest was post-operative SBO or reoperation for lysis of adhesion or intestinal surgery within the first 30 post-operative days. Multivariable regression analyses were used to estimate the association between stump closure method and post-operative SBO or reoperation in addition to cost while adjusting for patient demographics and appendiceal perforation. RESULTS: In total, 49,191 patients from 37 hospitals were included, of which, 29,733 (60.44%) were male, 21,403 (43.51%) were non-Hispanic white, and 18,291 (37.18%) had a diagnosis of complicated appendicitis. The median [IQR] age of the cohort was 11 [8-14] years. A surgical stapler was used during laparoscopic appendectomy in 35,788 (72.75%) patients, and early SBO or reoperation occurred in 653 (1.33%) patients. In adjusted analysis controlling for demographics and complicated appendicitis there was no statistically significant difference in the odds of SBO or reoperation between the two groups. (OR 1.17; 99% CI 0.86 - 1.6). Complicated appendicitis was the factor most associated with post-operative SBO or reoperation (OR 4.4; 99% CI 3.01 - 6.44). Median cumulative cost was slightly higher on unadjusted analysis in the stapler group ($10,329.3 vs $9,569.2). However, there was no significant difference on adjusted analysis. CONCLUSION: SBO or reoperation following laparoscopic appendectomy for appendicitis is uncommon. Complicated appendicitis is the most predictive factor of this outcome. Adjusting for available patient, disease, and hospital characteristics, use of a surgical stapler does not appear to be meaningfully associated with the development of acute SBO or reoperation. Surgeon preference remains the mainstay for safe appendiceal stump closure method. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III. STUDY TYPE: Retrospective Comparative Study.

Effectiveness of one minute per level intercostal nerve cryoablation for postoperative analgesia after surgical correction of pectus excavatum.

PURPOSE: Intraoperative intercostal nerve cryoablation has emerged as a promising modality for postoperative analgesia following Surgical Correction of Pectus Excavatum (SCOPE). Most centers use two-minute cryoablation per level, although data from histologic and adult studies suggest the effectiveness of one-minute freezes. We aimed to describe our center's experience with one minute per level cryoablation. METHODS: A retrospective single institution review of patients undergoing SCOPE was performed to compare patients pre- and post-intercostal nerve cryoablation implementation. Cryoablation was performed as one minute for each of the thoracic intercostal nerves T3-T7. Multivariable regression analyses were conducted to compare the outcomes and cost between pre- and post-implementation groups. RESULTS: During the study period, 198 patients underwent SCOPE with one Nuss bar, receiving either intraoperative intercostal nerve cryoablation (Cryo, n = 100) or preoperative thoracic paravertebral catheters (NoCryo, n = 98). Surgical time was on average 9 min longer for the Cryo group (p<0.01). Median length of stay for the Cryo group was 3 days shorter compared to the NoCryo group (p<0.01). The Cryo group had a 19-fold and 5.6-fold reduction in average inpatient and total postoperative opioid usage, respectively (p<0.01). Total hospital costs were significantly lower in the Cryo group (p<0.01). Overall complication rate was not statistically significant different between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Intraoperative one minute per level cryoablation is a potent approach to postoperative analgesia for SCOPE patients that led to a shorter hospital length of stay, lower hospital costs, and decreased opioid use compared to conventional analgesia at our institution. Pediatric surgeons performing correction of chest wall deformities should consider offering this technique.

Postoperative Antibiotics for Complicated Appendicitis in Children: Piperacillin/Tazobactam Versus Ceftriaxone with Metronidazole.

INTRODUCTION: Recent studies are discordant regarding postoperative use of piperacillin/tazobactam (PT) versus ceftriaxone/metronidazole (CM) for pediatric complicated appendicitis. Some argue that the broader spectrum PT decreases intraabdominal abscess formation; however, antibiotic stewardship, and once-a-day dosing favor CM. We aim to compare outcomes of postoperative antibiotic utilization using a large administrative database. METHODS: We queried the Pediatric Health Information System for patients 2-18 years old who underwent laparoscopic appendectomy for complicated appendicitis between 2016 and 2021. Patients were grouped into PT, CM, or other using the first postoperative day antibiotics. Adverse events and antibiotic use trends were evaluated. RESULTS: We included 29,015 children from 45 hospitals. CM was used in 51.9% and 31.3% received PT. Wide variation was seen among hospitals with PT use decreasing over the years. Overall rate of abscess was 9.2%. On multivariable regression, PT was associated with higher risk for abscess formation (RR 1.35, 99% CI 1.04-1.75) and readmission (RR 1.38, 99% CI 1.13-1.68) compared to the CM group. However, following adjustment for hospitals with high CM prevalence, these associations were no longer significant. CONCLUSION: Postoperative use of PT for complicated appendicitis is associated with higher rates of readmissions and intraabdominal abscess when compared to CM. However, this effect is mitigated when adjusting for common practice patterns. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III. STUDY TYPE: Retrospective Comparative Study.

Measuring the Efficacy of Thymectomy for Pediatric Myasthenia Gravis Across Tertiary Children's Hospitals.

BACKGROUND: Thymectomy is a treatment for pediatric myasthenia gravis, but the efficacy over time is unknown. Multi-institutional data are also lacking. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the efficacy of thymectomy for pediatric myasthenia gravis using medication burden and health care utilization as proxies for disease severity. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study of the Pediatric Health Information System database among children who underwent thymectomy at one of 49 children's hospitals from 2004 to 2022. Differences in annual median number of doses of myasthenia-related medications, admissions, and health care costs in the year before thymectomy to three years after were compared. A comparison cohort that did not undergo thymectomy was utilized. Medians were compared using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Generalized linear regression estimated the effect of surgical approach on outcomes. RESULTS: A total of451 patients (238 patients who underwent thymectomy and 213 nonthymectomy patients) were identified. Following thymectomy, the decrease in annual median total number of myasthenia-related doses was 12.0 (interquartile range: 6 to 31) (P < 0.001). The decrease in number of annual admissions was 2.0 (1 to 4) (P < 0.001), which represented a cost difference of $5292 ($3533 to $8681) (P < 0.001). No differences were observed in the control cohort. In a generalized linear regression model, surgical approach was not associated with the efficacy of thymectomy (P = 0.55). CONCLUSIONS: Thymectomy is an effective treatment for pediatric myasthenia gravis, evidenced by the decreased medication burden and health care utilization after surgery. Surgical approach did not influence the success of surgery. Thymectomy should be considered earlier in the treatment algorithm.