Breaking Barriers: Ensuring Gender Neutral Care on Short Term Surgical Missions.

Introduction: Gender discrimination is prevalent worldwide in medical and surgical care. In the setting of short-term surgical missions (STSMs) conducted to address the global burden of surgical disease, patient selection raises ethical considerations regarding equitable distribution of limited clinical resources. The goal of this study was to examine if equitable distribution of operative care between male and female patients occurs in STSMs.

Stop the Bleed in the Era of Virtual Learning: A Novel Strategy for Remote Teaching and Evaluation.

Introduction: Traumatic hemorrhage is a leading cause of preventable mortality worldwide. The Stop the Bleed (STB) course was developed to equip layperson bystanders with basic bleeding control knowledge and skills. However, large in-person courses have been disrupted due to COVID-19.

The Impact of Global Collaboration on the Academic Focus of the West African College of Surgeons: Are Worldwide Efforts Aligning with Local Priorities?

Background: Global collaboration has the potential to induce a shift in research focus away from the priorities of those in low- and low-middle-income countries (LICs and LMICs). This study quantified international collaboration among surgery publications by Fellows of the West African College of Surgeons (WACS) and investigated if collaboration with upper-middle-income and high-income countries (UMICs and HICs) decreases the homophily of research focus.

Methods: Publications by WACS surgery Fellows from 1960 to 2019 were characterized as local WACS publications, collaborative publications without UMIC/HIC participation, or collaborative publications with UMIC/HIC participation.

Stop the Bleed in Rural Sierra Leone: One Year of Interventions and Outcomes by Nursing Trainees.

Background: Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) bear the bulk of the global burden of traumatic injury, yet many lack adequate prehospital trauma care systems. The Stop the Bleed (STB) course, designed to equip bystanders with bleeding control skills, is infrequently offered in LMICs, and its impact in these settings is unknown. To examine the frequency and effectiveness of STB interventions in LMICs, we quantified nursing student trainees' encounters with bleeding victims after STB training in rural Sierra Leone.

Surgical subspecialists in West Africa: Workforce size, training opportunities, and contributing factors.

Background: The global burden of disease treatable by surgical subspecialists remains an outstanding area of need, and yet little is known about the subspecialist workforce worldwide, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. This study aims to quantify the subspecialty surgical workforce and number of subspecialty training programs in West Africa and to identify socioeconomic factors predicting the number of subspecialists in West African countries.

Methods: West African subspecialists and accredited fellowship training programs in 17 West African countries were quantified using membership data from the West African College of Surgeons and compared with publicly available workforce data from the United States, the United Kingdom, and East, Central, and Southern Africa.

Resection of Mixed Hepatocellular-Cholangiocarcinoma, Hepatocellular Carcinoma, and Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma.

Mixed hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma (HCC-CC) is a biphenotypic liver cancer thought to have unfavorable tumor biology and a poor prognosis. Surgical outcomes of HCC-CC remain unclear. We aimed to evaluate the clinical characteristics and surgical outcomes of HCC-CC.

Autophagy is a gatekeeper of hepatic differentiation and carcinogenesis by controlling the degradation of Yap.

Activation of the Hippo pathway effector Yap underlies many liver cancers, however no germline or somatic mutations have been identified. Autophagy maintains essential metabolic functions of the liver, and autophagy-deficient murine models develop benign adenomas and hepatomegaly, which have been attributed to activation of the p62/Sqstm1-Nrf2 axis. Here, we show that Yap is an autophagy substrate and mediator of tissue remodeling and hepatocarcinogenesis independent of the p62/Sqstm1-Nrf2 axis.

AUF1/hnRNP D represses expression of VEGF in macrophages.

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a regulator of vascularization in development and is a key growth factor in tissue repair. In disease, VEGF contributes to vascularization of solid tumors and arthritic joints. This study examines the role of the mRNA-binding protein AUF1/heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein D (AUF1) in VEGF gene expression.