Systematic review of survival following liver or lung metastasectomy for metastatic anal squamous cell carcinoma

INTRODUCTION

Metastatic anal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) carries a poor prognosis and the evidence base for surgical resection of metastases remains limited. The aim of this study was to establish the survival outcomes for patients undergoing metastasectomy for anal SCC.

METHODS

A systematic review was performed using the MEDLINE®, Embase®, Cochrane and PubMed® databases. Studies were considered for inclusion in the review if they involved patients aged >18 years with a diagnosis of stage IV anal SCC who underwent metastasectomy for liver and/or lung metastases. The primary outcome measure was overall survival. Secondary outcome measures were disease free survival, early morbidity according to the Clavien-Dindo classification and quality of life, measured using a validated scoring tool. Risk of bias was assessed with the ROBINS-I (Risk Of Bias In Non-randomised Studies - of Interventions) tool.

RESULTS

There were 10 studies with a total of 98 patients. There was heterogeneity in results reporting, with recurrence free survival the most reported outcome. For all studies reporting on liver metastasectomy, the one-year overall survival rate was 87%. In studies with adequate follow-up reported, the three and five-year overall survival rates were 53% and 38% respectively. Only one study reported on lung metastasectomy patients; the overall median survival was 24 months. None of the studies reported on quality of life measures. The ROBINS-I tool identified a critical risk of bias in six studies, a serious risk in one study and a moderate risk in three studies.

CONCLUSIONS

The evidence base for metastasectomy in metastatic anal SCC is limited. Further information is required to inform future treatment methods and use of a standardised outcomes reporting method is needed to support this.

Evaluation of prognostic risk models for postoperative pulmonary complications in adult patients undergoing major abdominal surgery: a systematic review and international external validation cohort study

BACKGROUND

Stratifying risk of postoperative pulmonary complications after major abdominal surgery allows clinicians to modify risk through targeted interventions and enhanced monitoring. In this study, we aimed to identify and validate prognostic models against a new consensus definition of postoperative pulmonary complications.

METHODS

We did a systematic review and international external validation cohort study. The systematic review was done in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. We searched MEDLINE and Embase on March 1, 2020, for articles published in English that reported on risk prediction models for postoperative pulmonary complications following abdominal surgery. External validation of existing models was done within a prospective international cohort study of adult patients (≥18 years) undergoing major abdominal surgery. Data were collected between Jan 1, 2019, and April 30, 2019, in the UK, Ireland, and Australia. Discriminative ability and prognostic accuracy summary statistics were compared between models for the 30-day postoperative pulmonary complication rate as defined by the Standardised Endpoints in Perioperative Medicine Core Outcome Measures in Perioperative and Anaesthetic Care (StEP-COMPAC). Model performance was compared using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROCC).

FINDINGS

In total, we identified 2903 records from our literature search; of which, 2514 (86·6%) unique records were screened, 121 (4·8%) of 2514 full texts were assessed for eligibility, and 29 unique prognostic models were identified. Nine (31·0%) of 29 models had score development reported only, 19 (65·5%) had undergone internal validation, and only four (13·8%) had been externally validated. Data to validate six eligible models were collected in the international external validation cohort study. Data from 11 591 patients were available, with an overall postoperative pulmonary complication rate of 7·8% (n=903). None of the six models showed good discrimination (defined as AUROCC ≥0·70) for identifying postoperative pulmonary complications, with the Assess Respiratory Risk in Surgical Patients in Catalonia score showing the best discrimination (AUROCC 0·700 [95% CI 0·683-0·717]).

INTERPRETATION

In the pre-COVID-19 pandemic data, variability in the risk of pulmonary complications (StEP-COMPAC definition) following major abdominal surgery was poorly described by existing prognostication tools. To improve surgical safety during the COVID-19 pandemic recovery and beyond, novel risk stratification tools are required.

FUNDING

British Journal of Surgery Society.

Hospital admissions in infants with Down syndrome: a record-linked population-based cohort study in Wales

BACKGROUND

Despite recent advances, mortality in children with Down syndrome remains five times higher than in the general population. This study aims to describe the burden, patterns and causes of hospital admissions in infants with Down syndrome, and compare this with infants without Down syndrome in a population-based cohort.

METHODS

This study used data from the Wales Electronic Cohort for Children, a cohort of all children born in Wales between 1990 and 2012. The cohort was generated from routine administrative data, linked to create an anonymised data set within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage databank. This analysis is based on all infants born between January 2003 and January 2012 who were followed to their first birthday, a move out of Wales, death, or until 31 October 2012 (end of follow-up). Infants with Down syndrome were identified using the Congenital Anomaly Register and Information Service in Wales. Multivariable Cox regression was used to compare the time to first hospital admission. Admission codes were used to identify the commonest indications for hospitalisation and to determine the presence of other congenital anomalies.

RESULTS

We included 324 060 children, 356 of whom had Down syndrome. Of infants with Down syndrome, 80.3% had at least one hospital inpatient admission during the first year of life, compared with 32.9% of infants without Down syndrome. These first admissions were earlier [median of 6 days interquartile range (IQR) (3, 72) compared with 45 days [IQR 6, 166)] and longer [median of 4 days (IQR 1, 15) compared with 1 day (IQR 0, 3)] than in infants without Down syndrome. The most common causes of admissions were congenital abnormalities, respiratory diseases, conditions originating in the perinatal period and infectious diseases. The presence of other congenital abnormalities increased hospitalisations in all infants, but more so in infants with Down syndrome who spent a median of 21 days in hospital (IQR 11, 47) during their first year of life.

CONCLUSION

Infants with Down syndrome are at high risk for early, more frequent and longer hospital admissions. Congenital heart disease and respiratory infections remain a major burden in this population. More research is needed to understand how to better manage these conditions particularly in the first month of life when most admissions occur.

An epidemiological investigation of COVID-19 outbreaks in a group of care homes in Wales, UK: a retrospective cohort study

Background

This study describes the epidemiology of COVID-19 outbreaks in four care homes in terms of spread, severity, presentation and interventions.

Methods

Participants were 100 residents and 102 staff from four co-located care homes in Wales. Data were collected from the homes and Public Health Wales, including demographics, presentations, test status and results, hospital admissions and deaths. Genomic sequencing of confirmed case samples was completed, where possible. Epi-curves, crude attack rates, a Kaplan-Meier survival curve and adjusted hazard ratios were calculated using R.

Results

About 14 confirmed and 43 possible resident cases, 23 confirmed and 47 possible staff cases occurred. Crude attack rates of possible and confirmed cases were 57% (residents) and 69% (staff). Genomic sequencing for 10 confirmed case PCR samples identified at least 5 different UK lineages of COVID-19.42 (42%) residents died, 23 (55%) with COVID-19 or suspected COVID-19 recorded on the death certificate. The hazard ratio for death amongst resident possible and confirmed cases compared to null cases, adjusting for age and sex, was 13.26 (95% CI 5.61–31.34).

Conclusions

There were extensive outbreaks of COVID-19 in these homes with high crude attack rates and deaths. Universal testing and early isolation of residents are recommended.

Where have all the appendicectomies gone?

INTRODUCTION

The COVID-19 pandemic stimulated a national lockdown in the UK. The public were advised to avoid unnecessary hospital attendances and health professionals were advised to avoid aerosol-generating procedures wherever possible. The authors hypothesised that these measures would result in a reduction in the number of patients presenting to hospital with acute appendicitis and alter treatment choices.

METHODS

A multicentred, prospective observational study was undertaken during April 2020 to identify adults treated for acute appendicitis. Searches of operative and radiological records were performed to identify patients treated during April 2018 and April 2019 for comparison.

RESULTS

A total of 190 patients were treated for acute appendicitis pre-lockdown compared with 64 patients treated during lockdown. Patients treated during the pandemic were more likely to have a higher American Society of Anesthesiology (ASA) score (p = 0.049) and to have delayed their presentation to hospital (2 versus 3 days, p = 0.03). During the lockdown, the use of computed tomography (CT) increased from 36.3% to 85.9% (p < 0.001), the use of an antibiotic-only approach increased from 6.2% to 40.6% (p < 0.001) and the rate of laparoscopic appendicectomy reduced from 85.3% to 17.2% (p < 0.001). The negative appendicectomy rate decreased from 21.7% to 7.1% during lockdown (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

The COVID-19 lockdown was associated with a decreased incidence of acute appendicitis and a significant shift in the management approach. The increased use of CT allows the identification of simple appendicitis for conservative treatment and decreases the negative appendicectomy rate.

The causal web of foetal alcohol spectrum disorders: a review and causal diagram

Foetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) are a leading cause of developmental disability. Prenatal alcohol use is the sole necessary cause of FASD, but it is not always sufficient. Multiple factors influence a child's susceptibility to FASD following prenatal alcohol exposure. Much of the FASD risk factor literature has been limited to discussions of association, rather than causation. While knowledge of predictor variables is important for identifying who is most at risk of FASD and for targeting interventions, causal knowledge is important for identifying effective mechanisms for prevention and intervention programmes. We conducted a systematic search and narrative synthesis of the evidence and used this to create a causal diagram (directed acyclic graph; DAG) to describe the causal pathways to FASD. Our results show that the aetiology of FASD is multifaceted and complex. FASD risk is determined by a range of lifestyle, sociodemographic, maternal, social, gestational, and genetic factors. The causal diagram that we present in this review provides a comprehensive summary of causal risk factors for FASD and can be used as a tool to inform data collection and statistical modelling strategies to minimise bias in future studies of FASD.

Perceptions of sexual harassment: the effects of gender, legal standard, and ambivalent sexism

This research tests the possibility that the reasonable woman as compared to the reasonable person test of hostile work environment sexual harassment interacts with hostile and benevolent sexist beliefs and under some conditions triggers protectionist attitudes toward women who complain of sexual harassment. We administered to a sample of undergraduates the ambivalent sexism inventory along with the fact patterns in two harassment cases and asked them to make legally relevant decisions under either the reasonable woman or person standard. We found that those high in hostile sexism, and women, found more evidence of harassment. However, those high in benevolent sexism did not exhibit the hostile sexism effects. Although men were less sensitive to the reasonable woman standard than women, under some conditions the reasonable woman standard enabled both genders to find greater evidence of harassment. The results are discussed from the perspectives of law and psychology.

[Blood picture of calves from primiparae kept under large-scale production conditions in the early postnatal period]

Twelve calves of the Red Spotted breed and its crossbreds born by first-calvers, kept in a large-capacity stable of a dairy farm, were subject to the study of the ontogenetic development of the values of the blood picture from birth up to the 10th day of age. The erythrocyte and leucocyte count, the packed cell volume and the relative and absolute number of neutrophils reached the significantly highest levels in calves before drinking the colostrum. The amount of haemoglobin, MCV and MCHC reached the highest values on the first day after birth. The values of the red blood picture decreased in the first week of life and reached the minimum on the tenth day. The leucocyte count decreased during the first to second day after birth, the decrease being due to a drop of the absolute number of neutrophils, and on the tenth day the leucocyte count returned to its initial value. Neutrophils prevailed in the peripheral blood of new-born calves whereas lymphocytes prevailed in the peripheral blood from the fourth day of life on. The amount of cosinophiles in the peripheral blood of the calves was about 0.5% up to the fourth day; on the seventh day it exceeded 1%. The relative number of monocytes was at its minimum level just after birth and showed a significant increase during the second to fourth day.