Publications by authors named "Kevin Koo"

Introduction: Patient-centered communication after surgery can enhance patient satisfaction and reduce unplanned clinical contact. However, patient information needs following kidney stone surgery are not well understood, limiting quality improvement efforts. We aimed to characterize patient-reported needs in and preferences for postoperative communication following kidney stone surgery.

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Key Points: Common kidney stones are unlikely to be an independent and direct cause of CKD in the general population. CKD may protect against kidney stones because of changes in key urinary factors critical for stone formation.

Background: Kidney stones and CKD are common disorders with a substantial interaction.

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Introduction: Glomus tumors are rare, benign neoplasms that originate from glomus bodies. While usually occurring in the subungual regions of the fingers, glomus tumors are seldom found in the foot, although rare reports have been made of glomus tumors in the hallux and even fewer in the lesser toes. We describe a reported case of a glomus tumor occurring in the distal phalanx of the left second toe that was initially missed on imaging studies, resulting in delayed diagnosis and surgical treatment.

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Purpose Of Review: High rates of professional burnout and career choice regret among urology residents may increase professional dissatisfaction, shorten career longevity, and exacerbate urology workforce shortages. Understanding the prevalence of and risk factors for burnout may help develop interventions.

Recent Findings: Up to 48% of contemporary U.

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Bovine mastitis is an inflammation of the mammary gland, and it is the most common infectious disease in dairy cattle. Mastitis reduces milk yield and quality, costing dairy farmers millions of dollars each year. The aim of this study was to develop a point-of-need test for identifying mastitis pathogens that is field portable, cost-effective and can be used with minimal training.

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Purpose: Our goal was to explore the current trends in burnout, career choice regret, and well-being needs among urology residents and fellows, with specific emphasis on identifying key factors associated with burnout.

Materials And Methods: The AUA Workforce Workgroup collaborated with the AUA Data Team to analyze data from the 2021 AUA Census, comprising a total of 243 residents and fellows. Key demographics, benefits and resources, career choice and debt, and burnout levels were analyzed, focusing on variables like gender, PGY (postgraduate year) level, debt burden, and personal health appointments.

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Introduction: The Karl Storz FLEX-XC1 is a novel single-use flexible ureteroscope that uses the same videographics platform as its reusable digital counterpart. We evaluated the technical performance of the FLEX-XC1 in its initial clinical use.

Methods: We reviewed a series of consecutive ureteroscopy procedures performed by 2 endourologists using the FLEX-XC1 for indications for which we typically use a single-use device: total stone burden > 15 mm or > 10 mm in the lower pole, anticipated case duration > 60 minutes, bilateral procedure, or upper tract urothelial cancer procedures.

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Article Synopsis
  • Onychocryptosis, or ingrown toenail, often affects younger individuals and was the focus of a study comparing two surgical techniques: Winograd wedge resection with matrixectomy (WG-M) and partial nail avulsion with phenolization (PNA-P).
  • The study involved 65 patients, assessing outcomes like nail regrowth, patient satisfaction, pain, inflammation, and healing time.
  • Results showed both techniques had high patient satisfaction (WG-M: 100%, PNA-P: 95.7%), but PNA-P was less invasive, less resource-intensive, and led to faster healing, with similar rates of regrowth.
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Objectives: To characterise the prevalence of impostor phenomenon (IP; tendency for high-achieving individuals to perceive themselves as fraudulent in their successes) amongst attending staff in urology, to identify variables that predict more severe impostorism, and to study the association of IP with burnout.

Subjects And Methods: A survey composed of the Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale (CIPS), demographic information, practice details, and burnout levels was e-mailed to urologists via urological subspecialty societies. Survey results were analysed to identify associations between IP severity, survey respondent characteristics, and symptoms of professional burnout.

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Reusable endoscopes appear to be most environmentally sustainable when the carbon footprint of routine device maintenance is optimized. Single-use endoscopes may offer cost-savings in clinical settings that accelerate device damage, such as prolonged procedure time or complex patient anatomy. For many urology practices, a hybrid approach that integrates single-use and reusable devices may be most economically sensible and environmentally sound.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to compare costs of osteoid osteoma ablation using cone beam CT (CBCT) with fluoroscopic guidance versus conventional CT (CCT) guidance, as well as microwave ablation (MWA) versus radiofrequency ablation (RFA).
  • An analysis of 91 patients showed that procedures using CBCT had significantly longer times and higher costs compared to CCT, while RFA and MWA had similar procedure times.
  • Key factors that increased total procedural costs included the use of CBCT, the use of RFA, and the patient's age, with CBCT being notably more expensive than CCT and RFA being slightly more costly than MWA.
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Infection with oncogenic strains of human papillomavirus (HPV), such as HPV-16 and HPV-18, can lead to malignant progression and tumorigenesis. As an adjunct to traditional invasive tissue sampling methods, the use of modern thermostable enzyme chemistries can aid in the development of innovative assay workflows to extract and detect circulating HPV DNA (cHPV-DNA) in liquid biopsies. In this work, we first successfully generated a model system to replicate fragmented cHPV-DNA in human plasma.

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The analysis of secreted protein biomarkers can be a useful non-invasive method of predicting or monitoring cancer therapeutic response. The increased level of soluble programmed cell death protein ligand 1 (sPD-L1) is a promising predictive biomarker for selecting patients who are likely to respond to immune checkpoint immunotherapy. The current established immunoassay for secreted protein analysis is enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

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