Techniques in the prevention and management of seromas after breast surgery.

Seromas are the most frequent complications following breast surgery, resulting in significant discomfort and morbidity with possible delays in commencing adjuvant therapies. Varied clinical practices exist in the techniques employed to prevent and manage seromata. This article assesses published literature on the techniques employed in prevention of seroma formation following breast surgery, evaluating the different methodologies used. Although prevention is the best strategy, seromata remain problematic and we consider their management. The principle findings were that prevention is key to the management of seromata. Methods employed to prevent seromata include suction drainage, shoulder immobilization, quilting sutures, fibrin sealants and innovative measures of managing the axilla, among others. The evidence demonstrated that a combination of quilting and drains significantly reduces the incidence and volumes of seromata. These effects are sustained by minimizing use of electrocautery, alongside increasing frequencies of axillary sentinel lymph node biopsies and node sampling. The efficacy data on fibrin sealants is inconclusive and consequently should not be routinely used alone or accompanied by quilting sutures. Clinically significant seromas deemed 'symptomatic' by patients and complicating infected seromas should be aspirated. There are limited data on the recommended treatment of established seromas with a paucity of high-quality studies and further research involving randomized trials are indicated.

Safety assessment of resident grade and supervision level during emergency appendectomy: analysis of a multicenter, prospective study.

BACKGROUND: Resident surgeons have been identified as a risk factor for worse outcome after appendectomy. The context of grade of resident and impact of supervision require further investigation. The objective of this study was to determine whether grade and supervision level of resident-performed appendectomy affects patient outcome. METHODS: A multicenter, prospective cohort study was performed for consecutive patients undergoing appendectomy during May and June 2013. The primary endpoint for this analysis was the 30-day adverse event rate. Supervision was defined as resident-performed appendectomy with an attending scrubbed. Multivariable binary logistic regression was used to take into account case mix and produce adjusted odds ratios (OR). RESULTS: From 2,867 appendectomies, 87% were performed by residents, and 72% were performed unsupervised. Residents operated on significantly younger patients with lower American Society of Anesthesiologists scores. Although wound infection rates were similar between attendings, and senior and junior residents (4.1%, 3.8%, 3.4% respectively; P = .486), pelvic abscess rate was greater for attendings (5.2%, 2.7%, 2.4%; P = .045). In adjusted models, supervised senior, supervised junior, and unsupervised junior residents showed no difference in 30-day adverse event rates compared with attendings (OR, 1.07 [P = .834], 0.93 [P = .773], and 0.83 [P = .264] respectively); unsupervised senior residents had a lesser rate of adverse events (OR, 0.71; P = .045). All resident groups showed no difference for rates of histopathologically normal appendectomy compared with attendings. CONCLUSION: Resident-performed appendectomy does not worsen patient outcomes. These findings support independent resident operating rights for selected cases. The system relies on mutual credentialing of competency between residents and supervising attendings.

Systematic review of the operative and non-operative management of acute upper limb ischemia.

Acute upper limb ischaemia (AULI) can be managed surgically, via interventional radiology, and conservatively, but no real guidelines exist for when a conservative approach is appropriate. A systematic review of the literature is presented of the surgical, radiological and conservative management of AULI. A search was performed using the electronic databases Medline and Embase. Interventions and outcomes for each study were recorded. The consensus from the literature review was that operative management (embolectomy) is the most commonly used and best first-line treatment for AULI. No studies that used conservative anticoagulation management as a primary therapy, this mainly being reserved for patients deemed unfit for interventional treatment, appear in the literature. The consensus from the literature is that operative management is the most commonly used and best treatment. However, bias toward using operative management for the fittest patients appears in the literature. It is also possible that conservative management is underreported.

Management of a giant inguinoscrotal hernia with an ulcerated base in a patient with cardiac disease.

Giant inguinal herniae pose a surgical challenge, though not uncommon in the developing world they are a rare presentation in the UK. We present a patient with cardiac disease who presented with a giant inguino-scrotal hernia complicated by a bleeding scrotal ulcer. We describe his medical management and the surgical repair of the hernia and refashioning of his scrotum.

ATP-dependent vesiculation in red cell membranes from different hereditary stomatocytosis variants.

The hereditary stomatocytoses are a group of dominant haemolytic anaemias that show two main features: invaginated, 'stomatocytic' morphology; and a membrane leak to the univalent cations Na and K. A patient with the most severe variant of these conditions was reported to show a defect in an in vitro process of ATP-dependent endocytic vesiculation (ADEV), which is found in normal red cells. We have examined this endocytosis process in 11 leaky red cell pedigrees available to us in the UK. ADEV in broken membranes was absent only in the two most severely affected, 'overhydrated' pedigrees studied, both of which showed a deficiency in the membrane raft protein, stomatin. The process was present, although typically diminished by about 10-20% compared with normal red cells, in all others. The cross-linker dimethyl adipimate (DMA), which could correct the cation leak in some of these patients, also corrected the ADEV defect in the same patients. In those patients in whom DMA had no effect on the ion leak, ADEV was not absent. In normal cells, this process of vesiculation was inhibited by inhibitors of membrane 'raft' function, by an antistomatin antibody and by vanadate and N-ethyl maleimide, but not by inhibitors of a number of kinases. These data highlight the heterogeneity of these conditions. A mechanism is discussed by which a defect in raft-based endocytosis could lead to the exaggerated surface exposure of an ion channel, which could then function constitutively, i.e. 'leak'.