Background
Following the Food and Drug Administration approval, robot-assisted colorectal surgery has gained more acceptance among surgeons. One of the open issues about robotic surgery is the ...economic sustainability. The aim of our study is to evaluate the economic sustainability of robotic as compared to laparoscopic right colectomy for the Italian National Health System.
Methods
We performed a retrospective multicentre case-matched study including 94 patients for each group from four different Italian surgical departments. An economic evaluation gathered from a real-world data was performed to assess the sustainability of the robotic approach for right colectomy in the Italian National Health System. In particular, a differential cost analysis between the two procedures was performed.
Results
No statistical differences were found between the two groups for postoperative outcomes. After a careful review of the literature on the cost assessment for the operative room, medical devices and hospital stay according with our data, we estimated the followings: (a) the mean operative room cost for robotic group was 2179 ± 476 € vs. 1376 ± 322 € for laparoscopic group; (b) the mean hospital stay cost for robotic group was 3143 ± 1435 € vs. 3292 ± 1123 € for laparoscopic group; and (c) the mean cost for instruments was 6280 € for robotic group vs. 1504 € for laparoscopic group. The total mean cost of robotic right colectomy was 11,576 ± 1915 € vs. 6196 ± 1444 € for laparoscopic right colectomy.
Conclusion
In conclusion, to date, robotic right colectomy with intracorporeal anastomosis does not provide any significant clinical advantages, which may justify the additional costs, as compared to its laparoscopic counterpart. Further evolution of robotic technology and experience may lead to a reduction of costs, especially if the robotic platform is used in an appropriate healthcare setting.
Abstract Background In recent years, new devices providing multiple channels have made the performance of laparoscopic cholecystectomy through a single access site not only feasible but much easier. ...The potential benefits of laparoendoscopic single-site (LESS) cholecystectomy may include scarless surgery, reduced postoperative pain, reduced postoperative length of stay, and improved postoperative quality of life. There are no comparative data between LESS cholecystectomy and standard laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) available at present with which to quantify these benefits. Methods This study was a prospective, randomized, dual-institutional pilot trial comparing LESS cholecystectomy with standard LC. The primary end point was postoperative quality of life, measured as length of hospital stay, postoperative pain, cosmetic results, and SF-36 questionnaire scores. Secondary end points included operative time, conversion to standard LC, difficulty of exposure, difficulty of dissection, and complication rate. Results No significant differences in postoperative lengths of stay were found in the two groups. Postoperative pain evaluation using a visual analogue scale showed significantly better outcomes in the standard LC arm on the same day of surgery ( P = .041). No differences in postoperative pain were found at the next visual analogue scale evaluation or in the postoperative administration of pain-relieving medications. Cosmetic satisfaction was significantly higher in the LESS group at 1-month follow-up (mean, 94.5 ± 9.4% vs 86 ± 22.3%; median, 100% vs 90%; P = .025). Among the 8 scales of the SF-36 assessing patients' physical and mental health, scores on the Role Emotional scale were significantly better in the LESS group (mean, 80.05 ± 29.42 vs 68.33 ± 25.31; median, 100 vs 66.67; P < .0001). Conclusions In this pilot trial, LESS cholecystectomy resulted in similar lengths of stay and improved cosmetic results and SF-36 Role Emotional scores but performed less well on pain immediately after surgery. A larger multicenter trial is needed to confirm and further investigate these results.
Hereditary hemolytic anemias are a group of disorders with a variety of causes, including red cell membrane defects, red blood cell enzyme disorders, congenital dyserythropoietic anemias, thalassemia ...syndromes and hemoglobinopathies. As damaged red blood cells passing through the red pulp of the spleen are removed by splenic macrophages, splenectomy is one possible therapeutic approach to the management of severely affected patients. However, except for hereditary spherocytosis for which the effectiveness of splenectomy has been well documented, the efficacy of splenectomy in other anemias within this group has yet to be determined and there are concerns regarding short- and long-term infectious and thrombotic complications. In light of the priorities identified by the European Hematology Association Roadmap we generated specific recommendations for each disorder, except thalassemia syndromes for which there are other, recent guidelines. Our recommendations are intended to enable clinicians to achieve better informed decisions on disease management by splenectomy, on the type of splenectomy and the possible consequences. As no randomized clinical trials, case control or cohort studies regarding splenectomy in these disorders were found in the literature, recommendations for each disease were based on expert opinion and were subsequently critically revised and modified by the Splenectomy in Rare Anemias Study Group, which includes hematologists caring for both adults and children.
Colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of death from neoplasia worldwide. Thanks to new screening programs, we are now seeing an increase in Early Onset of ColoRectal Cancer (EOCRC) in patients ...below the age of 50. Herein, we report a clinical case of a woman affected by EOCRC. This case illustrates the importance of genetic predisposition testing also in tumor patients. Indeed, for our patient, we used a combined approach of multiple molecular and cellular biology technologies that revealed the presence of an interesting novel variant in the
gene. The latter gene is implicated in damage repair processes and related, if mutated, to the onset of various tumor types. In addition, we stabilized Patient-Derived Organoids from the tumor tissue of the same patient and the result confirmed the presence of this novel pathogenic variant that has never been found before even in early onset cancer. In conclusion, with this clinical case, we want to underscore the importance of including patients even those below the age of 50 years in appropriate screening programs which should also include genetic tests for predisposition to early onset cancers.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignancies in the Western world and intestinal dysbiosis might contribute to its pathogenesis. The mucosal colon microbiome and C-C motif chemokine ...2 (CCL2) were investigated in 20 healthy controls (HC) and 20 CRC patients using 16S rRNA sequencing and immunoluminescent assay, respectively. A total of 10 HC subjects were classified as overweight/obese (OW/OB_HC) and 10 subjects were normal weight (NW_HC); 15 CRC patients were classified as OW/OB_CRC and 5 patients were NW_CRC. Results: Fusobacterium nucleatum and Escherichia coli were more abundant in OW/OB_HC than in NW_HC microbiomes. Globally, Streptococcus intermedius, Gemella haemolysans, Fusobacterium nucleatum, Bacteroides fragilis and Escherichia coli were significantly increased in CRC patient tumor/lesioned tissue (CRC_LT) and CRC patient unlesioned tissue (CRC_ULT) microbiomes compared to HC microbiomes. CCL2 circulating levels were associated with tumor presence and with the abundance of Fusobacterium nucleatum, Bacteroides fragilis and Gemella haemolysans. Our data suggest that mucosal colon dysbiosis might contribute to CRC pathogenesis by inducing inflammation. Notably, Fusobacterium nucleatum, which was more abundant in the OW/OB_HC than in the NW_HC microbiomes, might represent a putative link between obesity and increased CRC risk.
This work is a topic highlight on the surgical treatment of the right colon pathologies, focusing on the literature state of art and comparing the open surgery to the different laparoscopic and ...robotic procedures. Different laparoscopic procedures have been described for the treatment of right colon tumors: Totally laparoscopic right colectomy, laparoscopic assisted right colectomy,laparoscopic facilitated right colectomy, hand-assisted right colectomy, single incision laparoscopic surgery colectomy, robotic right colectomy. Two main characteristics of these techniques are the different type of anastomosis: Intracorporeal (for totally laparoscopic right colectomy, single incision laparoscopic surgery colectomy, laparoscopic assisted right colectomy and robotic technique) or extracorporeal (for laparoscopic assisted right colectomy, laparoscopic facilitated right colectomy, hand-assisted right colectomy and open right colectomy) and the different incision (suprapubic,median or transverse on the right side of abdomen).The different laparoscopic techniques meet the same oncological criteria of radicalism as the open surgery for the right colon. The totally laparoscopic right colectomy with intracorporeal anastomosis and even more the single incision laparoscopic surgery colectomy, remain a technical challenge due to the complexity of procedures (especially for the single incision laparoscopic surgery colectomy) and the particular right colon vascular anatomy but they seem to have some theoretical advantages compared to the other laparoscopic and open procedures.Data reported in literature while confirming the advantages of laparoscopic approach, do not allow to solve controversies about which is the best laparoscopic technique (Intracorporeal vs Extracorporeal Anastomosis) to treat the right colon cancer. However,the laparoscopic techniques with intracorporeal anastomosis for the right colon seem to show some theoretical advantages (functional, technical, oncological and cosmetic advantages) even if all studies conclude that further prospective randomized trials are necessary Robotic technique may be useful to overcome the problems related to inexperience in laparoscopy in some surgical centers.
Although intracorporeal anastomosis has been demonstrated to be safe and effective after right colectomy, limited data are available about its efficacy after left colectomy for colon cancer located ...in splenic flexure. A multi-institutional audit was designed, including 92 patients who underwent laparoscopic left colectomy with intracorporeal anastomosis (IA) compared with 89 matched patients who underwent a laparoscopic left colectomy with extracorporeal anastomosis (EA). There was no significant difference in terms of age, sex, BMI, and ASA score between the two groups. Post-surgical history and stage of disease according to AJCC/UICC TNM were also similar. IA and EA groups demonstrated similar oncologic radicality in terms of the number of lymph nodes harvested (18.5 ± 9 vs. 17.5 ± 8.4;
p
= 0.48). Recovery after surgery was also better in patients who underwent IA, as confirmed by the shorter time to flatus in the IA group (2.6 ± 1.1 days vs. 3.4 ± 1.2 days;
p
< 0.001) and higher post-operative pain expressed in the mean VAS Scale in the EA group (1.7 ± 2.1 vs. 3.5 ± 1.6;
p
< 0.001). Laparoscopic left colectomy with intracorporeal anastomosis was associated with a lower rate of post-operative complications (OR 6.7, 95% CI 2.2–20;
p
= 0.001). However, when stratifying according to Clavien classification, the difference was consistently confirmed for less severe (class I and II) complications (OR 7.6, 95% CI 2.5–23,
p
= 0.001) but not for class III, IV, and V complications (OR 1.8, 95% CI 0.1–16.9;
p
= 0.59). Our results were consistent to hypothesize that a complete laparoscopic approach could be considered a safe method to perform laparoscopic left colectomy with the advantage of a guaranteed faster recovery after surgery. Further randomized clinical trials are needed to obtain a more definitive conclusion.
Abstract
An innovative algorithm to automatically assess blood perfusion quality of the intestinal sector in laparoscopic colorectal surgery is proposed. Traditionally, the uniformity of the ...brightness in indocyanine green-based fluorescence consists only in a qualitative, empirical evaluation, which heavily relies on the surgeon’s subjective assessment. As such, this leads to assessments that are strongly experience-dependent. To overcome this limitation, the proposed algorithm assesses the level and uniformity of indocyanine green used during laparoscopic surgery. The algorithm adopts a
Feed Forward Neural Network
receiving as input a feature vector based on the histogram of the green band of the input image. It is used to (i) acquire information related to perfusion during laparoscopic colorectal surgery, and (ii) support the surgeon in assessing objectively the outcome of the procedure. In particular, the algorithm provides an output that classifies the perfusion as
adequate
or
inadequate
. The algorithm was validated on videos captured during surgical procedures carried out at the University Hospital
Federico II
in Naples, Italy. The obtained results show a classification accuracy equal to
$$99.9\%$$
99.9
%
, with a repeatability of
$$1.9\%$$
1.9
%
. Finally, the real-time operation of the proposed algorithm was tested by analyzing the video streaming captured directly from an endoscope available in the OR.
Background
Splenic flexure cancer (SFC), identified as tumors raised in the distal transverse colon and proximal descending colon, accounts for 2 to 5% of all surgically treated colorectal cancers. ...Despite the fact that the laparoscopic approach has become the gold standard for many colorectal procedures, it has never been extensively investigated in SFC due to lack of an agreed consensus on the appropriate operative procedure. The aim of this multicenter retrospective study is to evaluate the oncologic value of laparoscopic segmental resection with complete mesocolic excision (CME) for cancer located in the splenic flexure.
Methods
All data of consecutive patients who had undergone laparoscopic resection with CME for SFC from January 2005 to December 2017 at five different tertiary centers were retrospectively analyzed. The Kaplan–Meier (KM) test was used to assess the overall survival (OS) and the disease-free survival (DFS) rates after surgery. Univariate Cox regression was used to explore the association between OS and other independent factors.
Results
Recurrence was observed in 13 (11.6%) patients and a significant association between disease stage and recurrence (
P
< 0.001) was found with a higher proportion of stage IV patients in the recurrence group (46.1% vs. 7.1%). During a median follow-up of 43 months (range 12–149), 13 deaths occurred, all of them due to disease progression. KM curves for all stages showed an estimated survival rate of 51% at 148 months.
Conclusion
Laparoscopic segmental resection with CME appears to be an oncologically safe and effective procedure for treatment of SFC and may be considered as a standard surgical method for elective management of the disease. In the future, routine lymph node mapping could be used to confirm this hypothesis.
Introduction
There has been an increasing interest for the laparoscopic treatment of early gastric cancer, especially among Eastern surgeons. However, the oncological effectiveness of Laparoscopic ...Gastrectomy (LG) for Advanced Gastric Cancer (AGC) remains a subject of debate, especially in Western countries where limited reports have been published. The aim of this paper is to retrospectively analyze short- and long-term results of LG for AGC in a real-life Western practice.
Materials and methods
All consecutive cases of LG with D2 lymphadenectomy for AGC performed from January 2005 to December 2019 at seven different surgical departments were analyzed retrospectively. The primary outcome was diseases-free survival (DFS). Secondary outcomes were overall survival (OS), number of retrieved lymph nodes, postoperative morbidity and conversion rate.
Results
A total of 366 patients with stage II and III AGC underwent either total or subtotal LG. The mean number of harvested lymph nodes was 25 ± 14. The mean hospital stay was 13 ± 10 days and overall postoperative morbidity rate 27.32%, with severe complications (grade ≥ III) accounting for 9.29%. The median follow-up was 36 ± 16 months during which 90 deaths occurred, all due to disease progression. The DFS and OS probability was equal to 0.85 (95% CI 0.81–0.89) and 0.94 (95% CI 0.92–0.97) at 1 year, 0.62 (95% CI 0.55–0.69) and 0.63 (95% CI 0.56–0.71) at 5 years, respectively.
Conclusion
Our study has led us to conclude that LG for AGC is feasible and safe in the general practice of Western institutions when performed by trained surgeons.
PDF
