Ergonomics in the operating room and surgical training: a survey on the Italian scenario.

Introduction: Surgical-related injuries are frequent, in fact the reported percentage of musculoskeletal disorders in surgeons is between 47% and 87%. These conditions are caused by long periods of standing, incorrect postures, repeated movements, little rest between operations, the lack of integrated operator rooms, the correct number and arrangement of monitors and the use of non-ergonomic instruments. This survey aims to assess the Italian overview both highlighting how prevalent surgical-related injury is in our surgeons and whether there is an operating room ergonomics education program in Italian surgical specialty schools.

Changes in chromatin accessibility and transcriptional landscape induced by HDAC inhibitors in TP53 mutated patient-derived colon cancer organoids.

Here we present the generation and characterization of patient-derived organoids (PDOs) from colorectal cancer patients. PDOs derived from two patients with TP53 mutations were tested with two different HDAC inhibitors (SAHA and NKL54). Cell death induction, transcriptome, and chromatin accessibility changes were analyzed.

Portal vein thrombosis and liver transplantation: management, matching, and outcomes. A retrospective multicenter cohort study.

Background And Aims: Besides the increased risk of perioperative morbidity, graft failure, and mortality, the majority of PVT are diagnosed at liver transplantation (LT). Improving preoperative management and patient selection may lead to better short-term and long-term outcomes and reduce the risk of a futile LT. The authors aimed to identify predictors of adverse outcomes after LT in patients with nonmalignant portal vein thrombosis (PVT) and improve donor to recipient matching by analyzing the results of the Italian cohort of LT recipients.

Pulmonary transit time as a marker of diastolic dysfunction in Takotsubo syndrome.

Aim: To evaluate the pulmonary transit time (PTT) and its derived parameters using cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMRI) as markers of diastolic dysfunction in Takotsubo syndrome (TS) and its relationship with transthoracic echocardiography and CMRI parameters.

Materials And Methods: Twenty-two patients with TS, who exhibited diastolic dysfunction as assessed by transthoracic echocardiography, were enrolled retrospectively and the PTT, pulmonary transit time index (PTTI), and pulmonary blood volume index (PBVI) were evaluated using first-pass CMRI. PTT was calculated as the number of cardiac cycles required for a bolus of contrast agent to move from the right ventricle (RV) to the left ventricle (LV), whereas PTTI represents the PTT interval corrected for the heart rate.

Association between artificial nutrition in brain dead donors and early allograft function in liver transplant recipients: an observational study.

Background: The role of nutrition in donor after brain deaths (DBDs) has yet to be adequately discussed. The primary aim of this study was to investigate whether the nutritional intake in the 48 h before organ retrieval may play a role on the graft functional recovery assessed with Model for Early Allograft Function (MEAF) Score.

Methods: Single-center retrospective study evaluating all liver transplants performed at the University Hospital of Udine from January 2010 to August 2020.

A rare case of duplication of the descending colon in a pregnant woman: case report and literature review.

Introduction: Gastrointestinal duplications are uncommon congenital abnormalities that can occur anywhere throughout the intestinal tract. The small bowel is more interested than the large one. Duplications are schematically classified as spherical and tubular, respectively representing 80% and 20% of cases, with different relationships and communications with the native intestinal wall.

Internal hernia after an open gastrectomy: an unusual treatment approach and a systematic review of the literature.

Internal hernia (IH) is a serious complication that can occur after both laparoscopic and open surgery for the treatment of gastric cancer; the transverse colon and mesocolon, act as a natural partition between stomach and the small intestine and, once any type of gastrojejunal anastomosis is constructed, a potential space for internal hernia is created. We present the case of a 68-year-old patient diagnosed with intestinal ischemia due to an IH in the site of the jejunojejunostomy after an open gastrectomy for gastric cancer, treated with negative wound pressure therapy (NWPT) on open abdomen (ABTHERATM dressing).

Preventing iatrogenic ureteral injury in colorectal surgery: a comprehensive and systematic review of the last 2 decades of literature and future perspectives.

Iatrogenic ureteral injury (IUI) during colorectal surgery is a rare complication but related to a serious burden of morbidity. This comprehensive and systematic review aims to provide a critical overview of the most recent literature about IUI prevention techniques in colorectal surgery. We performed a comprehensive and systematic review of studies published from 2000 to 2022 and assessed the use of techniques for ureteral injury prevention and intraoperative localization.

Atrial Impairment as a Marker in Discriminating Between Takotsubo and Acute Myocarditis Using Cardiac Magnetic Resonance.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to comprehensively compare the left and right atrium strain and strain rate (SR) parameters by cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) between patients with Takotsubo (TS) and patients with acute myocarditis (AM).

Materials And Methods: We retrospectively enrolled 3 groups of patients: TS (n=18), AM (n=14), and 11 healthy subjects. All the patients had complete CMR data for features tracking assessment.

Is the indocyanine green clearance test useful in viral acute liver failure? Maybe!

N/A.

PO 21% oxygenated hypothermic machine perfusion in kidney transplantation: Any clinical benefit?

Background: In deceased donor kidney transplantation (KT), the use of hypothermic machine perfusion (HMP) has been acquiring the status of best practice in the pre-transplant management of kidney grafts. Two types of HMP are currently available, oxygenated HMP and non-oxygenated HMP. However, data on the real clinical impact of oxygenation on KT outcome are still heterogeneous.

Re-thinking of T-tube use in whole liver transplantation: an analysis on the risk of delayed graft function.

The liver-gut axis has been identified as crucial mediator of liver regeneration. Thus, the use of a T-tube in liver transplantation (LT), which interrupts the enterohepatic bile circulation, may potentially have a detrimental effect on the early allograft functional recovery. We retrospectively analyzed a cohort of 261 patients transplanted with a whole liver graft, with a duct-to-duct biliary anastomosis, who did not develop any surgical complication within postoperative day 14.

Current practice with grafts with multiple renal arteries in kidney transplantation: role of the methylene blue in the lower pole.

Kidneys with multiple renal arteries (MRAs) from different patches, may provide to the surgeon additional technical difficulties that make kidney transplants very challenging. MRAs have been largely debated over the years whether to be anastomosed or not due to the disappointing outcomes when it comes to inappropriate ligation or anastomosis.  Some authors empirically reassure that smaller branches can be safely ligated and dissected without intraoperative and postoperative complications or compromising the functional recovery of the graft.

Association between preoperative diastolic dysfunction and early allograft dysfunction after orthotopic liver transplantation: An observational study.

Objectives: To investigate the association between the grade of diastolic dysfunction (DD) and the occurrence of early allograft dysfunction (EAD) in liver transplant patients following the new 2016 American Society of Echocardiography/European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (ASE/EACVI) guidelines.

Methods: From January 2015 to December 2019, we retrospectively analyzed 83 patients who underwent orthotopic liver transplantation (OLTx) and their susceptibility to develop EAD according to the grade of preoperative DD. EAD was defined according to the criteria proposed by Olfhoff et al.

Assessment of hepatic steatosis based on needle biopsy images from deceased donor livers.

Background: Assessment of hepatic steatosis (HS) before transplantation requires the pathologist to read a graft biopsy. A simple method based on the evaluation of images from tissue samples with a smartphone could expedite and facilitate the liver selection. This study aims to assess the degree of HS by analysing photographic images from liver needle biopsy samples.

The Challenging Management of an Intracardiac Thrombus in a Liver Transplant Patient at the Reperfusion Phase: A Case Report and Brief Literature Review.

The exact origin of intracardiac thrombi formation during orthotopic liver transplant remains unknown. The altered balance between hypercoagulability, hypocoagulation, and endothelial dysfunction associated with end-stage liver disease is thought to play a pivotal role. Venous stasis, vascular clamping, and reperfusion could also contribute to clot formation.

Association between the donor to recipient ICG-PDR variation rate and the functional recovery of the graft after orthotopic liver transplantation: A case series.

Background: Despite current advances in liver transplant surgery, post-operative early allograft dysfunction still complicates the patient prognosis and graft survival. The transition from the donor has not been yet fully understood, and no study quantifies if and how the liver function changes through its transfer to the recipient. The indocyanine green dye plasma disappearance rate (ICG-PDR) is a simple validated tool of liver function assessment.

Association between indocyanine green clearance test and ischemic type biliary lesions within one year after orthotopic liver transplantation.

Background: Ischemic type biliary lesions (ITBLs), a particular subset of non-anastomotic biliary strictures (NAS), are characterized by intra and extrahepatic strictures that occur in the absence of either hepatic artery thrombosis or stenosis. When they occur within the first year after liver transplantation their development is mostly related to ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI). The indocyanine green plasma disappearance rate (ICG-PDR) might be able to predict the probability of IRI-induced graft damage after liver transplantation.

Immunonutrition in elective colorectal surgery and early inflammatory response.

Background: Immunonutrition has gained increasing interest over years, enough to be recommended in several international guidelines and to be included in the ERAS protocol for colorectal surgery. Although clinical advantages have been proved for malnourished cancer-affected patients, its role is more controversial in other settings. We evaluated the impact of immunonutrition in major colorectal elective surgery for benign and malignant diseases, regardless of the preoperative nutritional status.

Early Graft Dysfunction Following Kidney Transplantation: Can Thermographic Imaging Play a Predictive Role?

The shortage of organs and the growing need for them over recent years have led to the adoption of less stringent donor acceptance criteria, resulting in the approval of marginal organs for transplant, especially from elderly donors. This implies a higher risk of graft dysfunction, a higher frequency of immunological and vascular complications, and shorter graft survival. Several strategies have been implemented in clinical practice to assess graft quality and suitability for transplantation.

Potential Role of Artificial Intelligence in Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Can It Help Clinicians in Making a Diagnosis?

In the era of modern medicine, artificial intelligence (AI) is a growing field of interest which is experiencing a steady development. Several applications of AI have been applied to various aspects of cardiac magnetic resonance to assist clinicians and engineers in reducing the costs of exams and, at the same time, to improve image acquisition and reconstruction, thus simplifying their analysis, interpretation, and decision-making process as well. In fact, the role of AI and machine learning in cardiovascular imaging relies on evaluating images more quickly, improving their quality, nulling intraobserver and interobserver variability in their interpretation, upgrading the understanding of the stage of the disease, and providing with a personalized approach to cardiovascular care.

Postoperative Trends and Prognostic Values of Inflammatory and Nutritional Biomarkers after Liver Transplantation for Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Preoperative inflammatory biomarkers such as the Platelet-to-Lymphocyte Ratio (PLR) and the Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR) strongly predict the outcome in surgically treated patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), while nutritional biomarkers such as the Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) and the Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI) show an analogue prognostic value in hepatic resection (HR) but not in liver transplant (LT) cases. Data on the impact of LT on the inflammatory and nutritional/metabolic function are heterogeneous. Therefore, we investigated the post-LT trend of these biomarkers up to postoperative month (POM) 12 in 324 HCC patients treated with LT.

Early diagnosis of chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity by cardiac MRI.

Survival rate in cancer patients has improved over the course of the years. In cancer survivors, cardiovascular disease is the second leading cause of mortality and early detection and serial monitoring of cardiotoxicity are key factors towards the improvement of patients' outcomes. This review article will provide an overview of the existing literature regarding the tools that MRI can offer in the early diagnosis of myocardial damage.