Surgical Citizenship: Engagement in Surgical Organizations.

As leaders, cardiothoracic surgeons must learn about and undergo transitions during the stages of a successful career. The authors discuss the process of transitions and the roles of networks to support professional transitions. The role of engagement in surgical organizations to create these networks and help support professional transitions is also explored.

Palliative radiotherapy and the introduction of a Rapid Access Palliative Clinic in a national radiation oncology network.

Background: Palliative radiotherapy (PRT) is commonly used to treat symptoms of advanced cancer. PRT has been associated with elevated 30-day mortality (30DM). A Rapid Access Palliative Clinic (RAPC) can streamline the treatment process for patients receiving treatment.

Artificial intelligence based real-time video ergonomic assessment and training improves resident ergonomics.

Background: Surgery demands long hours and intense exertion raising ergonomic concerns. We piloted a sensorless artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted ergonomics analysis app to determine its feasibility for use with residents.

Methods: Surgery residents performed simulated laparoscopic tasks before and after a review of the SCORE ergonomics curriculum while filmed with a sensorless app from Kinetica Labs that calculates joint angles as a metric of ergonomics.

Minimally invasive treatment of mitral valve disease with severe mitral annular calcification: Meeting paper for Mitral Conclave 2022.

Objective: Mitral valve disease in presence of severe mitral annular calcification (MAC) remains a challenge for surgeons to address. Conventional surgical techniques have potential for heightened morbidity and mortality. The advent of transcatheter heart valve technology and transcatheter mitral valve replacement (TMVR) holds promise to treat mitral valve disease with MAC with excellent clinical outcomes.

Global Makeup of Cardiothoracic Surgeons as Represented by Our Major Societies and Associations.

Background: Prior efforts to capture the cardiothoracic surgery community rely on survey data with potentially biased or low response rates. Our goal is to better understand our community by assessing the membership directories from The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS), European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS), and Asian Society for Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery (ASCVTS).

Methods: Membership data were obtained from membership directories.

Strategies for Well-Being in Interventional Radiology.

Interventional radiologists (IRs) have a massive impact on their patients, communities, and healthcare at large. Yet, IRs have physical and emotional challenges that lead to a high rate of burnout compared with other medical specialties. A Medscape survey in 2013 showed a 37% burnout incidence among radiologists, which increased to 49% in 2015.

Prevalence of Breast Cancer in Female Physicians Performing Procedures With Significant Fluoroscopy Exposure: Survey.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess self-reported breast cancer prevalence potentially associated with occupational radiation exposure from fluoroscopy-guided procedures in female physicians using current standard protection measures.

Methods: An institutional review board-approved survey was shared as a link to self-identified female physicians. We compared self-reported prevalence of breast cancer among women physicians with longer than 10 years of postfellowship practice in specialties with heavy fluoroscopy exposure versus specialties with low fluoroscopy exposure.

Improved survival after lung transplantation for adults requiring preoperative invasive mechanical ventilation: A national cohort study.

Objective: Early survival after lung transplantation has improved in the last decade. Mechanically ventilated recipients are known to be at greater risk for early post-transplant mortality. We hypothesized that post-transplant survival in mechanically ventilated recipients has improved over time.

Is laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy safer than laparoscopic gastric bypass? a comparison of 30-day complications using the MBSAQIP data registry.

Background: Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) has become popular due to its technical ease and excellent short-term results. Understanding the risk profile of LSG compared with the gold standard laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (LRYGB) is critical for patient selection.

Objectives: To use traditional regression techniques and random forest classification algorithms to compare LSG with LRYGB using the 2015 Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Data Registry.

Elevated donor plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 levels and the risk of primary graft dysfunction.

Primary graft dysfunction (PGD) following lung transplantation is associated with elevated recipient plasma levels of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) and the receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE). However, the significance of these biomarkers in the donor plasma is uncertain. We hypothesized that elevated donor plasma levels of PAI-1 and RAGE would be associated with recipient PGD.

Efficacy of Evolving Early-Extubation Strategy on Early Postoperative Functional Recovery in Pediatric Open-Heart Surgery: A Matched Case-Control Study.

There has been a paradigm shift toward "fast-track" management with early extubation (EE) in cardiac surgery. Our retrospective, matched case-control study wishes to define the benefits of EE in pediatric congenital heart surgery. We examined 50 consecutive pediatric cardiac surgery patients extubated in the operating room (February 2009 to July 2009) against a control group of delayed-extubation patients.

Adherence to medication in stroke survivors: a qualitative comparison of low and high adherers.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate factors that may explain variance in adherence to medication in stroke patients. Design. A qualitative comparison of high and low adherers to medication.

Predictors of adherence to secondary preventive medication in stroke patients.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to identify factors which predict adherence in stroke survivors.

Design: This is a longitudinal study where 180 stroke survivors were assessed 1 year after their first ischaemic stroke. The relationship between adherence and illness and medication beliefs was tested at baseline (time 1) and again 5-6 weeks later (time 2).

Primary sutureless repair for infants with mixed total anomalous pulmonary venous drainage.

Background: Mixed type total anomalous pulmonary venous drainage (TAPVD) poses technical challenges and high mortality owing to diminutive size and remote location of the pulmonary vein (PV) confluences. We hypothesized that primary application of sutureless repair may better incorporate small and remote confluences, thereby minimizing PV stenosis and improving outcomes.

Methods: Twenty-two consecutive infants (1985 to 2009; median age 27 days; body weight 3.

Early extubation after pediatric cardiac surgery: systematic review, meta-analysis, and evidence-based recommendations.

Objective: To derive evidence-based recommendations regarding early extubation strategy after congenital cardiac surgery.

Outcomes: Incidence of total mortality, morbidity, reintubation, length, and costs of intensive care unit and hospital stay.

Evidence: Medline, Embase, and the Cochrane-controlled trial register on the Cochrane library were searched from the earliest achievable date of each database to present.

Adiponectin is present in cord blood but is unrelated to birth weight.

Objective: In adults, adiponectin is reduced in association with excess adiposity, type 2 diabetes, and hyperinsulinemia. We assessed whether adiponectin was 1) present in the fetal circulation, 2) altered in the fetal circulation in the presence of maternal diabetes, and 3) had relations to fetal cord blood insulin or adiposity.

Research Design And Methods: We assessed adiponectin in cord blood in a large cohort of singleton offspring of diabetic mothers (ODM; n = 134) and control mothers (n = 45).

Saccharomyces cerevisiae PIP2 mediating oleic acid induction and peroxisome proliferation is regulated by Adr1p and Pip2p-Oaf1p.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae genes involved in fatty acid degradation contain in their promoters oleate response elements (OREs) and type 1 upstream activation sequences (UAS1s) that bind Pip2p-Oaf1p and Adr1p, respectively. The promoter of the PIP2 gene was found to contain a potential UAS1 that consists of a tandem array of CYCCRR half-sites in an overlapping arrangement with a previously characterized ORE. Electrophoretic mobility shift analysis demonstrated that Adr1p bound to UAS1PIP2, and Northern analysis in combination with a lacZ reporter gene confirmed that Adr1p influenced the transcription of PIP2.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae Pip2p-Oaf1p regulates PEX25 transcription through an adenine-less ORE.

The role of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Pip2p-Oaf1p transcription factor was examined in reference to the regulation of the peroxin gene PEX25 involved in peroxisome proliferation. The PEX25 promoter contains an oleate response element (ORE)-like sequence comprising a CGG palindrome lacking a canonical adenine, which is considered critical for element function and Pip2p-Oaf1p binding. Pex25p levels were higher in wild-type cells grown on oleic acid medium than in those grown on ethanol, but this induction was abolished in cells devoid of Pip2p-Oaf1p.

Preliminary characterisation of DML1, an essential Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene related to misato of Drosophila melanogaster.

A genetic and cell-biological analysis is provided for Saccharomyces cerevisiae DML1 (YMR211w) encoding a Drosophila melanogaster Misato-like protein. Misato and Dml1p are descendants of an ancestral tubulin-like protein, and exhibit regions with similarity to members of a GTPase family that include eukaryotic tubulin and prokaryotic FtsZ. Deletion of DML1 was lethal to haploid cells; sporulated DML1/dml1Delta heterozygotes from different genetic backgrounds gave rise to no more than two viable spores per tetrad.