Abstract Background Adhesive small bowel obstructions are the most common postoperative causes of hospitalization. Several studies investigated the diagnostic and therapeutic role of water-soluble ...contrast agent (WSCA) in predicting the need for surgery, but there is no consensus. Methods A systematic review and meta-analysis was done of studies on diagnostic and therapeutic role of oral WSCA. Results WSCA had a sensitivity of 92% and a specificity of 93% in predicting resolution of obstruction without surgery; diagnostic accuracy increased significantly if abdominal X-rays were taken after 8 hours. The administration of oral WSCA reduced the need for surgery (odds ratio .55, P = .003), length of stay (weighted mean difference −2.18 days, P < .00001), and time to resolution (weighted mean difference −28.25 hours, P < .00001). No differences in terms of morbidity or mortality were recorded. Conclusions The administration of WSCA is accurate in predicting the need for surgery; the test should be taken after at least 8 hours from administration. WSCA is a proven safe and effective treatment, correlated with a significant reduction in the need for surgery and in the length of hospital stay.
Acute calculus cholecystitis (ACC) has a high incidence in the general population. The presence of several areas of uncertainty, along with the availability of new evidence, prompted the current ...update of the 2016 WSES (World Society of Emergency Surgery) Guidelines on ACC.
The WSES president appointed four members as a scientific secretariat, four members as an organization committee and four members as a scientific committee, choosing them from the expert affiliates of WSES. Relevant key questions were constructed, and the task force produced drafts of each section based on the best scientific evidence from PubMed and EMBASE Library; recommendations were developed in order to answer these key questions. The quality of evidence and strength of recommendations were reviewed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) criteria (see https://www.gradeworkinggroup.org/ ). All the statements were presented, discussed and voted upon during the Consensus Conference at the 6th World Congress of the World Society of Emergency Surgery held in Nijmegen (NL) in May 2019. A revised version of the statements was voted upon via an online questionnaire until consensus was reached.
The pivotal role of surgery is confirmed, including in high-risk patients. When compared with the WSES 2016 guidelines, the role of gallbladder drainage is reduced, despite the considerable technical improvements available. Early laparoscopic cholecystectomy (ELC) should be the standard of care whenever possible, even in subgroups of patients who are considered fragile, such as the elderly; those with cardiac disease, renal disease and cirrhosis; or those who are generally at high risk for surgery. Subtotal cholecystectomy is safe and represents a valuable option in cases of difficult gallbladder removal.
ELC has a central role in the management of patients with ACC. The value of surgical treatment for high-risk patients should lead to a distinction between high-risk patients and patients who are not suitable for surgery. Further evidence on the role of clinical judgement and the use of clinical scores as adjunctive tools to guide treatment of high-risk patients and patients who are not suitable for surgery is required. The development of local policies for safe laparoscopic cholecystectomy is recommended.
Peptic ulcer disease is common with a lifetime prevalence in the general population of 5-10% and an incidence of 0.1-0.3% per year. Despite a sharp reduction in incidence and rates of hospital ...admission and mortality over the past 30 years, complications are still encountered in 10-20% of these patients. Peptic ulcer disease remains a significant healthcare problem, which can consume considerable financial resources. Management may involve various subspecialties including surgeons, gastroenterologists, and radiologists. Successful management of patients with complicated peptic ulcer (CPU) involves prompt recognition, resuscitation when required, appropriate antibiotic therapy, and timely surgical/radiological treatment.
The present guidelines have been developed according to the GRADE methodology. To create these guidelines, a panel of experts was designed and charged by the board of the WSES to perform a systematic review of the available literature and to provide evidence-based statements with immediate practical application. All the statements were presented and discussed during the 5th WSES Congress, and for each statement, a consensus among the WSES panel of experts was reached.
The population considered in these guidelines is adult patients with suspected complicated peptic ulcer disease. These guidelines present evidence-based international consensus statements on the management of complicated peptic ulcer from a collaboration of a panel of experts and are intended to improve the knowledge and the awareness of physicians around the world on this specific topic. We divided our work into the two main topics, bleeding and perforated peptic ulcer, and structured it into six main topics that cover the entire management process of patients with complicated peptic ulcer, from diagnosis at ED arrival to post-discharge antimicrobial therapy, to provide an up-to-date, easy-to-use tool that can help physicians and surgeons during the decision-making process.
Introduction. Emergency resection represents the traditional treatment for left-sided malignant obstruction. However, the placement of self-expanding metallic stents and delayed surgery has been ...proposed as an alternative approach. The aim of the current meta-analysis was to review the available evidence, with particular interest for the short-term outcomes, including a recent multicentre RCT. Methods. We considered randomized controlled trials comparing stenting as a bridge to surgery and emergency surgery for the management of left-sided malignant large bowel obstruction, performing a systematic review in MEDLINE, PubMed database, and the Cochrane libraries. Results. We initially identified a total of 2543 studies. After the elimination of duplicates and the screening of titles and abstracts, seven studies, for a total of 448 patients, were considered. The current meta-analysis revealed no difference in the mortality rate between the stent group and the emergency surgery group; the postoperative complication rate (37.84% versus 54.87%, P=0.02), the stoma rate (28.8% versus 46.02%, P<0.0001), and the incidence of wound infection (8.11% versus 15.49%, P=0.01) were reduced after stent as a bridge to surgery. Conclusion. Colonic stenting as a bridge to surgery appears to be a safe approach to malignant large bowel obstruction. Possible advantages of this treatment can be identified in a reduced incidence of postoperative complications and a lower stoma rate. Further RCTs considering long-term outcomes and cost-effectiveness analysis are needed.
This paper reports on the consensus conference on the management of intra-abdominal infections (IAIs) which was held on July 23, 2016, in Dublin, Ireland, as a part of the annual World Society of ...Emergency Surgery (WSES) meeting. This document covers all aspects of the management of IAIs. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation recommendation is used, and this document represents the executive summary of the consensus conference findings.
Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) has been proposed as a treatment in ovarian cancer. A recently published RCT demonstrated that HIPEC prolongs disease-free survival (DFS) and overall ...survival (OS) in ovarian cancer. The aim of the study was to investigate oncologic results of cytoreductive surgery+HIPEC compared with cytoreductive surgery alone in advanced primary ovarian cancer with a particular attention to the pattern of recurrence.
This is a retrospective case control study with a propensity score (PS) matching of the patients. All the patients treated for primary advanced ovarian cancer who underwent interval surgery with or without HIPEC were collected; a PS was calculated in order to match cases to controls.
Among 77 eligible patients 56 patients were included in the study. Preoperative patients' characteristics were homogeneous. No difference in morbidity and mortality after surgery were recorded. DFS was not different among the 2 groups (13.2 vs. 13.9 months, p=0.454) but OS was better in patients treated with HIPEC with no median reached vs. 35.5 months (p=0.048). Patients treated with cytoreductive surgery alone were more likely to have a peritoneal recurrence (43% vs. 14%).
HIPEC seems to affect the relapse pattern with lesser peritoneal recurrence. This difference in relapse pattern seems to affect the OS with better results in patients treated with HIPEC. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings.
Abdominal vascular trauma accounts for a small percentage of military and a moderate percentage of civilian trauma, affecting all age ranges and impacting young adult men most frequently. Penetrating ...causes are more frequent than blunt in adults, while blunt mechanisms are more common among pediatric populations. High rates of associated injuries, bleeding, and hemorrhagic shock ensure that, despite advances in both diagnostic and therapeutic technologies, immediate open surgical repair remains the mainstay of treatment for traumatic abdominal vascular injuries. Because of their devastating nature, abdominal vascular injuries remain a significant source of morbidity and mortality among trauma patients. The American Association for the Surgery of Trauma in conjunction with the World Society of Emergency Surgery seek to summarize the literature to date and provide guidelines on the presentation, diagnosis, and treatment of abdominal vascular injuries. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Review study, level IV.
Gallstone disease is very common afflicting 20 million people in the USA. In Europe, the overall incidence of gallstone disease is 18.8% in women and 9.5% in men. The frequency of gallstones related ...disease increases by age. The elderly population is increasing worldwide.
The present guidelines aims to report the results of the World Society of Emergency Surgery (WSES) and Italian Surgical Society for Elderly (SICG) consensus conference on acute calcolous cholecystitis (ACC) focused on elderly population.
The 2016 WSES guidelines on ACC were used as baseline; six questions have been used to investigate the particularities in elderly population; the answers have been developed in terms of differences compared to the general population and to statements of the 2016 WSES Guidelines. The Consensus Conference discusses, voted, and modified the statements. International experts contributed in the elaboration of final statements and evaluation of the level of scientific evidences.
The quality of the studies available decreases when we approach ACC in elderly. Same admission laparoscopic cholecystectomy should be suggested for elderly people with ACC; frailty scores as well as clinical and surgical risk scores could be adopted but no general consensus exist. The role of cholecystostomy is uncertain.
The evaluation of pro and cons for surgery or for alternative treatments in elderly suffering of ACC is more complex than in young people; also, the oldest old age is not a contraindication for surgery; however, a larger use of frailty and surgical risk scores could contribute to reach the best clinical judgment by the surgeon. The present guidelines offer the opportunity to share with the scientific community a baseline for future researches and discussion.
Gastric cancer (GC) is the fourth most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in the world; 53–60% of patients show disease progression and die of peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC). ...PC of gastric origin has an extremely inauspicious prognosis with a median survival estimate at 1–3 months. Different studies presented contrasting data about survival rates; however, all agreed with the necessity of a complete cytoreduction to improve survival. Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) has an adjuvant role in preventing peritoneal recurrences. A multidisciplinary approach should be empowered: the association of neoadjuvant intraperitoneal and systemic chemotherapy (NIPS), cytoreductive surgery (CRS), HIPEC, and early postoperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy (EPIC) could increase the rate of completeness of cytoreduction (CC) and consequently survival rates, especially in patients with Peritoneal Cancer Index (PCI) ≤6. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy may improve survival also in PC from GC and adjuvant chemotherapy could prevent recurrence. In the last decade an interesting new drug, called Catumaxomab, has been developed in Germany. Two studies showed that this drug seems to improve progression-free survival in patients with GC; however, final results for both studies have still to be published.
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