Sarcopenia is independently associated with poor preoperative physical fitness in patients undergoing colorectal cancer surgery.

Background: Accurate preoperative risk assessment for major colorectal cancer (CRC) surgery remains challenging. Body composition (BC) and cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) can be used to evaluate risk. The relationship between BC and CPET in patients undergoing curative CRC surgery is unclear.

Addressing the challenges restoring clinical services during the COVID-19 pandemic by harnessing the alignment of clinical and management leadership: an example from a large colorectal service.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has posed the greatest operational challenge to the English National Health Service since its inception. Elective surgical services have struggled due to the need to protect both staff and patients from viral exposure, and perioperative COVID-19 infection has been associated with significant excess mortality.

Interventions: In this brief report, we describe how through necessity, it has provided an opportunity to redesign services for the benefit of both patients and organisations, with attendant improvement in activity compared with prepandemic metrics.

A Delphi consensus statement for digital surgery.

The use of digital technology is increasing rapidly across surgical specialities, yet there is no consensus for the term 'digital surgery'. This is critical as digital health technologies present technical, governance, and legal challenges which are unique to the surgeon and surgical patient. We aim to define the term digital surgery and the ethical issues surrounding its clinical application, and to identify barriers and research goals for future practice.

A novel digital rectoscope for the triage of lower gastrointestinal symptoms in primary care: a prospective multicentre feasibility study.

Background: Access to community rectoscopy might help to ease the burden on hospital services and reduce costs for the NHS. To assess this, a prospective multicentre observational phase I feasibility study of a novel digital rectoscope and telestration software for the triage of lower gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms was undertaken.

Aim: To determine if digital rectoscopy is feasible, acceptable, and clinically safe.

The current status of robotic colorectal surgery training programmes.

Robotic-assisted colorectal surgery (RACS) is steadily increasing in popularity with an annual growth in the number of colorectal procedures undertaken robotically. Further upscaling of RACS requires structured and standardised robotic training to safeguard high-quality clinical outcomes. The aims of this systematic review were to assess the structure and assessment metrics of currently established RACS training programmes.