Publications by authors named "Christopher Gaffney"

To explore the frequency and predictive factors of erectile dysfunction diagnosis after colorectal cancer surgery. The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare database was used to identify a national sample of men undergoing surgery for colorectal cancer from 2004 to 2015. Men aged > 65 years with any index surgery within 1 year of diagnosis of colorectal cancer were included.

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Purpose: Patients from deprived areas are more likely to experience longer waiting times for elective surgery, be multimorbid, and have inferior outcomes from elective and emergency surgery. This study aims to investigate how surgical outcomes vary by deprivation for patients undergoing elective abdominal wall reconstruction.

Methods: A three-centre retrospective cohort study was conducted across three hospitals in North-West England, including patients with complex ventral hernias undergoing abdominal wall reconstruction between 2013 and 2021.

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Purpose: Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) remains the backbone of prostate cancer treatment. Beyond the suppression of testosterone and tumor cell growth, emerging evidence suggests that ADT also modulates the immune tumor microenvironment. However, a more precise understanding of the timing and intricacies of these immunologic shifts is needed.

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Purpose: Incisional hernias are a frequent complication following robotic radical prostatectomy. Observational data in men undergoing robotic prostatectomy suggest that transverse closure resulted in lower hernia rates than vertical closure. We sought to compare the incidence of incisional hernia after robotic radical prostatectomy after vertical and transverse extraction site closure.

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Accurate measurements of glycaemic control and the underpinning regulatory mechanisms are vital in human physiology research. Glycaemic control is the maintenance of blood glucose concentrations within optimal levels and is governed by physiological variables including insulin sensitivity, glucose tolerance and β-cell function. These can be measured with a plethora of methods, all with their own benefits and limitations.

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Objectives: Many patients experience pain, anxiety, and discomfort with prostate biopsy, which may discourage enrollment in active surveillance programs or follow-up biopsy. Guided meditation can significantly reduce pain and anxiety during percutaneous biopsy. We sought to evaluate the effectiveness of a brief mind-body intervention on patient-reported outcomes after prostate biopsy.

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Background: Training programmes for obstetrics and gynaecology (O&G) and general surgery (GS) vary significantly, but both require proficiency in laparoscopic skills. We sought to determine performance in each specialty.

Design: Prospective, observational study.

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While spaceflight is becoming more common than before, the hazards spaceflight and space microgravity pose to the human body remain relatively unexplored. Astronauts experience muscle atrophy after spaceflight, but the exact reasons for this and solutions are unknown. Here, we take advantage of the nematode to understand the effects of space microgravity on worm body wall muscle.

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Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-targeted prostate biopsy (MRI-biopsy) detects high-Grade Group (GG) prostate cancers not identified by systematic biopsy (S-biopsy). However, questions have been raised whether cancers detected by MRI-biopsy and S-biopsy, grade-for-grade, are of equivalent oncologic risk. The authors evaluated the relative oncologic risk of GG diagnosed by S-biopsy and MRI-biopsy.

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Background/aims: It has been proposed that informed consent for randomized trials should be split into two stages, with the purported advantage of decreased information overload and patient anxiety. We compared patient understanding, anxiety and decisional quality between two-stage and traditional one-stage consent.

Methods: We approached patients at an academic cancer center for a low-stakes trial of a mind-body intervention for procedural distress during prostate biopsy.

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Introduction: Surgeons are among the most at-risk professionals for work-related musculoskeletal decline and experience high mental demands. This study examined the electromyographic (EMG) and electroencephalographic (EEG) activities of surgeons during surgery.

Methods: Surgeons who performed live laparoscopic (LS) and robotic (RS) surgeries underwent EMG and EEG measurements.

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Background: Enhanced recovery programmes are associated with improved short-term outcomes following liver surgery. The impact of enhanced recovery programmes on medium- and long-term outcomes is incompletely understood. This study aimed to assess the impact of an enhanced recovery programme on long-term survival in patients undergoing surgery for colorectal liver metastases.

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Objective: To investigate the utilization of holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP) using a large real-world cohort. We compare the safety, readmission, and retreatment rates of HoLEP to other widely used endoscopic surgical interventions for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) including transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP), photoselective vaporization of the prostate, and prostatic urethral lift.

Methods: Men who underwent endoscopic treatments for BPH from 2000 to 2019 were identified in the Premier Healthcare Database (n = 218,793).

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Bladder cancer at an individual level is likely to be the consequence of repeated, long-term exposure to one or more known bladder carcinogens, some of which are endemic or unavoidable in daily life, in addition to host factors. This Mini-Review highlights exposures that are associated with higher risk of bladder cancer, summarizes the evidence for each association, and suggests strategies to decrease risk at both individual and population levels. PATIENT SUMMARY: Tobacco smoking, exposure to certain chemicals in your diet, environment, or workplace, urinary infections, and certain medications can increase your risk of bladder cancer.

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Older adults exhibit a reduced number and function of CD34 + circulating progenitor cells (CPC), a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Exercise promotes the mobilisation of CPCs from bone marrow, so whether ageing per se or physical inactivity in older age reduces CPCs is unknown. Thus, this study examined the effect of age on resting and exercise-induced changes in CPCs in aerobically trained adults and the effect of 8 weeks of sprint interval training (SIT) on resting and exercise-induced CPCs in older adults.

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Thermal partial-gland ablation (TPGA) is a promising treatment option for patients with prostate cancer (PCa) that has an excellent side-effect profile. However, the literature on TPGA in high-risk PCa is not robust enough to discount the risk of undertreatment and understaging in this population. Future studies, especially with incorporation of advanced imaging to better select patients, are necessary to understand the safety and efficacy of TPGA in high-risk disease.

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Aims: Aerobic exercise is well recognised as an effective treatment for people with type 2 diabetes but the optimal amount of aerobic exercise to improve glycaemic control remains to be determined. Thus, the aim of this meta-analysis and meta-regression was to assess the impact of volume and intensity of aerobic exercise on glycaemic control.

Methods: Medline, Cochrane, Embase, and Web of Science databases were searched up until 15 December 2020 for the terms "aerobic exercise AND glycaemic control", "type 2 diabetes AND exercise", and "exercise AND glycaemic control AND Type 2 diabetes AND randomised control trial".

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Purpose: Biobanking tissue of high quality and fidelity is imperative for cancer genomics research. Since it is a challenging process, we sought to develop a protocol that improves the fidelity and quantity of biobanked primary prostate cancer (CaP) tissue.

Materials And Methods: We conducted a pilot study evaluating pathologic concordance of biobanked tissue and the radical prostatectomy specimen using either standard protocol (SP) vs.

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Background: Surgeons are among the most at risk of work-related musculoskeletal health decline because of the physical demands of surgery, which is also associated with cognitive fatigue. Minimally invasive surgery offers excellent benefits to patients but the impact of robotic or laparoscopic surgery on surgeon well-being is less well understood. This work examined the musculoskeletal and cognitive demands of robot-assisted versus standard laparoscopic surgery.

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Background: The Alzheimer's disease (AD)-associated amyloid-beta protein precursor (AβPP) can be cleaved by β-site AβPP cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE1) and the γ-secretase complex to yield neurotoxic amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides. However, AβPP can also be cleaved in a 'non-amyloidogenic' manner either by α-secretase to produce soluble AβPP alpha (sAβPPα) (a fragment with neuroprotective/neurogenic functions) or through alternative BACE1-mediated 'beta prime' activity yielding soluble AβPP beta prime (sAβPPβ').

Objective: To determine whether sAβPPα depletion, as opposed to Aβ peptide accumulation, contributes to cytotoxicity in AD-relevant SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cell models.

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