Outcomes of adhesion barriers in gynecologic surgeries: A retrospective study at a medical center

What Should I Use? Impact of Adhesion Barriers on Postoperative Abdominal Complications: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND

Adhesions are a feared complication of abdominal surgery. There have been many new adhesion barriers developed and tested; however, there is no recent systematic review analyzing all the published literature. To address this, we aimed to analyze the different types of adhesion barriers, and determine their effects on postoperative outcomes in patients.

METHODS

A total of 14,038 articles utilizing adhesion barriers in abdominal surgery were retrieved from the PubMed, EMBASE, and Scopus databases. Inclusion criteria were: patients undergoing abdominal surgery, patients receiving an adhesion barrier, and reported postoperative outcomes. Two reviewers independently screened titles/abstracts and full-text articles using Covidence. The ROBINS-I tool was used to assess the quality of the included studies. Study protocol: Prospero CRD42023458230.

RESULTS

A total of 20 studies, with no overall high risk of bias, with 171,792 patients were included. Most studies showed an equivocal benefit for adhesion barriers, with no singular adhesion barrier type that had definitive superior outcomes compared to the others. Bioresorbable barriers emerged as the most extensively researched adhesion barrier type, exhibiting promising results in colorectal surgery. Starch-based adhesion barriers also exhibited a reduction in overall postoperative bowel obstructions and may be beneficial for stoma sites and port closures. On the other hand, many studies raised concerns regarding complications, including risk of abscess formation, fistula development, peritonitis, and anastomotic leakage.

CONCLUSIONS

Adhesion barriers should be considered on a case-by-case basis, however, they should not be utilized prophylactically in all abdominal surgeries due to their risk of complications.

Laparoscopic application of sodium hyaluronate-carboxymethylcellulose barrier in abdominopelvic surgery: A Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses for Systematic Review Protocols-compliant systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

We aimed to evaluate the incidence of postoperative adhesion formation and adhesion-related consequences (eg, bowel obstruction) after placement of a sodium hyaluronate-carboxymethylcellulose adhesion barrier after laparoscopic abdominopelvic surgery.

METHODS

In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched the Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online and Embase via Ovid, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, ScienceDirect, BIOSIS Previews, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and Clinical Trial Registries. A manual search (eg, Google Scholar and professional association websites) was also conducted to supplement the electronic database results. Two reviewers independently identified relevant studies based on inclusion and exclusion criteria and extracted data.

RESULTS

A total of 28 studies were included in the systematic qualitative review. Three of the 28 studies included had comparable outcome measures, interventions, and control groups, allowing the pooling of study data. A total of 938 patients (490 patients in the sodium hyaluronate-carboxymethylcellulose barrier group and 448 in the no adhesion barrier group) from these 3 studies were included in the meta-analyses, which found the incidence of bowel obstruction was significantly lower (65% risk reduction) in the sodium hyaluronate-carboxymethylcellulose barrier group compared with the control group (relative risk = 0.35; 95% confidence interval, 0.19-0.63; P = .005) with extremely low heterogeneity between studies (I2 = 0; P = .41). The placement of sodium hyaluronate-carboxymethylcellulose barrier laparoscopically did not create new safety signals nor did it increase the incidence of adverse events.

CONCLUSION

Our meta-analysis found that laparoscopic application of a sodium hyaluronate-carboxymethylcellulose barrier in abdominopelvic surgery reduces the risk of bowel obstruction where applied during the early postoperative phase.

Combination of Sterile Injury and Microbial Contamination to Model Post-surgical Peritoneal Adhesions in Mice

Abdominal surgeries are frequently associated with the development of post-surgical adhesions. These are irreversible fibrotic scar bands that appear between abdominal organs and the abdominal wall. Patients suffering from adhesions are at risk of severe complications, such as small bowel obstruction, chronic pelvic pain, or infertility. To date, no cure exists, and the understanding of underlying molecular mechanisms of adhesion formation is incomplete. The current paradigm largely relies on sterile injury mouse models. However, abdominal surgeries in human patients are rarely completely sterile procedures. Here, we describe a modular surgical procedure for simultaneous or separate induction of sterile injury and microbial contamination. Combined, these insults synergistically lead to adhesion formation in the mouse peritoneal cavity. Surgical trauma is confined to a localized sterile injury of the peritoneum. Microbial contamination of the peritoneal cavity is induced by a limited perforation of the microbe-rich large intestine or by injection of fecal content. The presented protocol extends previous injury-based adhesion models by an additional insult through microbial contamination, which may more adequately model the clinical context of abdominal surgery. Graphical abstract.

Abdominal heterotopic pregnancy post-IVF double embryo transfer

Uterosacral ligament (USL) is an uncommon site of implantation for abdominal ectopic pregnancies. This is the first case of USL heterotopic pregnancy post invitro fertilisation (IVF). The patient presented 6 weeks after a double embryo transfer with acute onset abdominal pain and was diagnosed with a suspected live tubal ectopic pregnancy with a viable intrauterine pregnancy on ultrasound. A diagnostic laparoscopy revealed an ectopic pregnancy implanted on the left USL which was resected and confirmed on histology. The patient was discharged well on postoperative day 2 with a viable intrauterine pregnancy. This case highlights the importance of considering non-tubal heterotopic pregnancies in the context of risk factors including IVF with double embryo transfer presenting with abdominal pain.

Application of Bioactive Hydrogels for Functional Treatment of Intrauterine Adhesion

Intrauterine adhesion (IUA) is a common endometrial disease and one of the main causes of infertility in women of childbearing age. Current treatment strategies, such as hysteroscopic adhesion resection, hysteroscopic transcervical resection of adhesion (TCRA), the use of local hormone drugs, and anti-adhesion scaffold implantation, do not provide a satisfactory pregnancy outcome for moderate-severe IUA, which presents a great challenge in reproductive medicine. With the development of material engineering, various bioactive and functional hydrogels have been developed using natural and synthetic biomaterials. These hydrogels are not only used as barely physical barriers but are also designed as vectors of hormone drugs, growth factors, and stem cells. These characteristics give bioactive hydrogels potentially important roles in the prevention and treatment of IUA. However, there is still no systematic review or consensus on the current advances and future research direction in this field. Herein, we review recent advances in bioactive hydrogels as physical anti-adhesion barriers, in situ drug delivery systems, and 3D cell delivery and culture systems for seeded cells in IUA treatment. In addition, current limitations and future perspectives are presented for further research guidance, which may provide a comprehensive understanding of the application of bioactive hydrogels in intrauterine adhesion treatment.

Effectiveness of barrier agents for preventing postoperative bowel obstruction after laparoscopic surgery: a retrospective cohort study

PURPOSE

The effectiveness of using anti-adhesion agents in laparoscopic surgery is controversial. We compared the outcomes of patients exposed to anti-adhesion agents (barrier group) with those of patients not exposed (no barrier group) in laparoscopic surgery.

METHODS

Using a nationwide claim-based database in Japan, we analyzed data from patients who underwent laparoscopic surgery between 2005 and 2019 and compared the patient characteristics and the proportion of those with bowel obstruction between the barrier and no barrier groups. We also performed several sensitivity and subgroup analyses.

RESULTS

Of the 57,499 patients who met the inclusion criteria, 14,360 and 43,139 were assigned to the barrier and no barrier groups, respectively. The proportion of patients with a bowel obstruction in the two groups did not differ among all patients hospitalized for obstruction (1.1 vs. 1.1%, p = 0.63) and those requiring surgery (0.2 vs. 0.2%, p = 0.39). In the sensitivity analysis with propensity score matching, the incidences of bowel obstruction between the barrier and non-barrier groups were equivocal (1.3 vs. 1.6%), but statistically marginal (chi-square test, p = 0.035; log-rank test, p = 0.09).

CONCLUSION

The use of barrier agents for adhesive prevention did not show clear effectiveness for the prevention of bowel obstruction after laparoscopic surgery for unselected cases. Further studies focusing on more specific procedures are needed.

Efficacy and safety of Seprafilm for preventing intestinal obstruction after gastrointestinal neoplasms surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE

It was controversial that hyaluronate-carboxy-methylcellulose-based membrane (Seprafilm) could prevent intestinal obstruction after gastrointestinal neoplasms operation. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Seprafilm in preventing postoperative intestinal obstruction of gastrointestinal neoplasms patients.

METHODS

A systematic research of multiple databases was performed to identify relevant studies, and the studies satisfying the inclusion criteria were included. Risk ratio (RR), weighted mean difference (WMD), and 95% confidence intervals were calculated using RevMan 5.3.

RESULTS

2937 patients from 10 studies who were enrolled in this meta-analysis were divided into the Seprafilm group (n = 1334) and the control group (n = 1603). The Seprafilm group had lower incidence of intestinal obstruction (RR, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.38-0.70; p < .0001), reoperation rates due to intestinal obstruction (RR, 0.48; 95% CI, 0.28 - 0.80; p = .005), incidence of overall complications (RR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.61-0.97; p = .03) and higher serum creatinine on postoperative day 5 (WMD, 0.15; 95% CI, 0.05-0.25; p = .003). There were no differences regarding time to intestinal obstruction after operation, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, blood urea nitrogen, white blood cell count results on day 5 and 7, serum creatinine on day 7, hospital stay, and incidence of intra-abdominal infection, wound infection, anastomotic leakage between the 2 groups.

CONCLUSIONS

This meta-analysis provided valuable evidence-based support for the efficacy and safety of Seprafilm in preventing postoperative intestinal obstruction of gastrointestinal neoplasms patients. However, more multicenter randomized controlled trials from different countries are needed.

[Existing and forward-looking ways to prevent adhesions in IPOM hernia repair. A research overview]

IPOM intraperitoneal hernia repair, in comparison with other abdominal wall reconstruction methods, has a number of significant advantages. Among them are a reduction in operative time, low rate of surgical site infections, quick rehabilitation, and good cosmetic results. At the same time, one of the main constraining factors for its widespread use is the rather high frequency of adhesion formation between the implant and the abdominal organs. The first way to solve this serious problem is to improve the structure of the implant itself, and in the first place, its anti-adhesive layer. The second is the search for adjuvant tools that work in «problematic» areas, prone to adhesions formation, such as the points of implant fixation, its edges, or the areas of damage to antiadhesive layer due to a violation of the operative technique. It is desirable that they could exert their effect also in other parts of the abdominal cavity, which, despite the absence of a zone of «active» intervention, can also undergo adhesions. Based on this, the purpose of this review was to summarize modern data on the anti-adhesive activity of both composite implants and specialized membranes and liquid agents.