Publications by authors named "Massimo G Viola"

Objective: To validate the ISGPS complexity grading system for minimally invasive pancreaticoduodenectomy (MIPD).

Background: Although concerns about patient safety persist, MIPD is gaining popularity. The ISGPS recently introduced a difficulty grading system to improve patient selection by aligning procedural complexity with surgeon and center expertise.

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Background: Laparoscopic left colectomy has emerged as a potential alternative to open surgery for the treatment of acute diverticulitis. However, the evidence on the safety and efficacy of this approach is still subject to debate.

Aim: This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the techniques, outcomes and complications associated with laparoscopic left colectomy for acute diverticulitis.

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Article Synopsis
  • In the TOPAZ-1 trial, patients with biliary tract cancers (BTC) who had recurrence within 6 months of surgery were excluded, which often happens in practice. This study looked into the effectiveness of cisplatin-gemcitabine-durvalumab (CGD) in patients who did experience early recurrence.
  • The study enrolled 178 BTC patients who had surgery and then underwent treatment with CGD after experiencing either early or late disease recurrence. Key goals were to measure overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS).
  • Results showed no significant differences in OS and PFS between early and late relapse groups, suggesting CGD is effective regardless of when the cancer
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Background: In the worldwide, real-life setting, some candidates for right colectomy still receive no bowel preparation, some receive oral antibiotics alone, some receive mechanical bowel preparation alone, and some receive mechanical bowel preparation with oral antibiotics, with varying degrees of compliance to preoperative intravenous antibiotic prophylaxis. Previous studies mainly focused on left-sided colorectal anastomoses while less attention has been devoted to right-sided ileocolic anastomoses. When high-level evidence from randomized clinical trials is lacking, multiple-treatment propensity score weighting analysis of prospective data on the basis of generalized boosted model is superior to a simple propensity score-matching analysis and to an inverse probability weighting in terms of external validity and bias reduction.

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: Patients who undergo surgery may require a blood transfusion and patients undergoing major colorectal surgery are more prone to preoperative and perioperative anemia. Blood transfusions have, however, long been associated with inflammatory and oncological complications. We aim to investigate the effects of an optimal implementation of a patient blood management (PBM) program in our hospital.

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Introduction: This systematic review aims to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the literature on robotic video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) pneumonectomy.

Aim: To evaluate its effectiveness and safety in treating various lung diseases.

Methods: A thorough search of electronic databases was conducted, and 25 studies encompassing 1,650 patients were included in the review.

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Background: Current evidence about intraoperative anastomotic testing after left-sided colorectal resections is still controversial. The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of Indocyanine Green fluorescent angiography (ICG-FA) and air-leak test (ALT) over standard assessment on anastomotic leakage (AL) rates according to surgeon's perception of anastomosis perfusion and/or integrity in clinical practice.

Methods: A database of 2061 patients who underwent left-sided colorectal resections was selected from patients enrolled in a prospective multicenter study.

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Sleeve gastrectomy (SG) is the most frequently performed bariatric procedure globally. However, data regarding short- and long-term results remain insufficient. This study aimed to evaluate the short- and longterm effects of SG.

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Background: Current evidence concerning bowel preparation before elective colorectal surgery is still controversial. This study aimed to compare the incidence of anastomotic leakage (AL), surgical site infections (SSIs), and overall morbidity (any adverse event, OM) after elective colorectal surgery using four different types of bowel preparation.

Methods: A prospective database gathered among 78 Italian surgical centers in two prospective studies, including 6241 patients who underwent elective colorectal resection with anastomosis for malignant or benign disease, was re-analyzed through a multi-treatment machine-learning model considering no bowel preparation (NBP; No.

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Duodenopancreatectomy is a surgical procedure that involves the removal of part of the pancreas, duodenum, and bile ducts. This procedure is commonly performed in patients with pancreatic cancer or other gastrointestinal disorders. However, the safety and efficacy of duodenopancreatectomy in older adults (octogenarians) remain unclear.

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In the modern era when screening and early surveillance of pulmonary nodules are increasing in importance, the management of the pulmonary nodule represents a different challenge to thoracic surgeons. The difficulty lies in the merging of sound surgical and oncological principles with more minimally invasive and appropriate lung-sparing surgery. The success rates of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) resection for smaller as well as subsolid nodules have increased as a result of radiologists' preoperative localization tools.

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Background: In Italy, surgeons continue to drain the abdominal cavity in more than 50 per cent of patients after colorectal resection. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of abdominal drain placement on early adverse events in patients undergoing elective colorectal surgery.

Methods: A database was retrospectively analysed through a 1:1 propensity score-matching model including 21 covariates.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study evaluates the impact of mechanical bowel preparation (MBP) versus no MBP on patients undergoing elective colorectal surgery across two multicenter studies in Italy, involving 8359 patients.
  • It found that patients who did not have MBP experienced a significantly lower rate of anastomotic leakage (3.5%) compared to those who did (6.0%), while no significant differences were noted in surgical site infections between the two groups.
  • Additionally, patients without MBP had lower reoperation rates and shorter hospital stays, suggesting that avoiding MBP may be more beneficial for elective colorectal surgeries.
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Background: Remarkable progress has been made in pancreatic surgery over the last decades with the introduction of minimally invasive techniques. Minimally invasive pancreatoduodenectomy (MIPD) remains one of the most challenging operations in abdominal surgery and it is performed in a few centers worldwide. The treatment of the pancreatic stump is a crucial step of this operation; however, the best strategy to perform pancreatic anastomosis is still debated.

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Radical modular antegrade pancreaticosplenectomy (RAMPS) improves posterior tumor-free margins during resections of pancreatic neoplasia involving the body or tail. However, minimally invasive RAMPS is technically challenging and has been reported seldom. We present for the first time a minimally invasive RAMPS technique with an innovative approach providing early dissection and control of the main peripancreatic vessels from an inframesocolic embryonal window, suitable for laparoscopy and robotics.

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Background: Previous studies on oocyte extract supplementation showed benefits in patients with liver tumours. In this trial, we hypothesized that the oocyte extract supplement impacted the QoL after hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.

Methods: This was a multicentre, double-blind, randomized clinical trial designed to assess the QoL of patients receiving a supplement of oocyte extract or placebo postoperatively.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigated the impact of a three-row circular stapler on the incidence of anastomotic complications after left-sided colorectal resections, comparing it to a two-row circular stapler.
  • Retrospective analysis of 2799 cases revealed that the three-row stapler significantly decreased both overall and major anastomotic leakage rates, as well as major morbidity.
  • These findings suggest that adopting three-row circular staplers may lead to better surgical outcomes in patients undergoing these procedures.
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Background: Intraoperative identification of cancerous tissue is fundamental during oncological surgical or endoscopic procedures. This relies on visual assessment supported by histopathological evaluation, implying a longer operative time. Hyperspectral imaging (HSI), a contrast-free and contactless imaging technology, provides spatially resolved spectroscopic analysis, with the potential to differentiate tissue at a cellular level.

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Background: Cholecystocholedocholithiasis (CCL) occurs in up to 18% of patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC). The two-stage treatment using endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) followed by LC is the treatment of choice for CCL. However, only 10 to 60% of patients have common bile duct (CBD) stones at the time of ERCP, thus exposing patients to unnecessary ERCPs, causing 3 to 15% of post-interventional pancreatitis.

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Background: Poor anastomotic perfusion can cause anastomotic leaks (AL). Hyperspectral imaging (HSI), previously validated experimentally, provides accurate, real-time, contrast-free intestinal perfusion quantification. Clinical experience with HSI is limited.

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Although no definitive data exist in literature, adjuvant chemotherapy is usually recommended in patients with radically resected stage III rectal cancer treated with neo-adjuvant chemo-radiotherapy. We performed a systematic review of literature with direct and indirect comparisons to assess the role of adjuvant mono- or poli-chemotherapy in radically resected rectal cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemo-radiotherapy. Neither chemotherapy (mono-or poli-chemotherapy) nor polichemotherapy with oxaliplatin-containing regimens seems to improve Overall Survival and Disease-Free Survival in patients with radically resected rectal cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemo-adiotherapy.

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Background: Lenvatinib has been approved in Italy since October 2019 as a first-line therapy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and to date data on effectiveness and safety of lenvatinib are not available in our region. To fill this gap, we performed a multicentric analysis of the real-world treatment outcomes with the propensity score matching in a cohort of Italian patients with unresectable HCC who were treated with either sorafenib or lenvatinib.

Aims And Methods: To evaluate the effectiveness of sorafenib and lenvatinib as primary treatment of advanced HCC in clinical practice we performed a multicentric analysis of the treatment outcomes of 288 such patients recruited in 11 centers in Italy.

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Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) is a novel optical imaging modality, which has recently found diverse applications in the medical field. HSI is a hybrid imaging modality, combining a digital photographic camera with a spectrographic unit, and it allows for a contactless and non-destructive biochemical analysis of living tissue. HSI provides quantitative and qualitative information of the tissue composition at molecular level in a contrast-free manner, hence making it possible to objectively discriminate between different tissue types and between healthy and pathological tissue.

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Background: Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) programs influence morbidity rates and length of stay after colorectal surgery (CRS), and may also impact major complications and anastomotic leakage rates. A prospective multicenter observational study to investigate the interactions between ERAS program adherence and early outcomes after elective CRS was carried out.

Methods: Prospective enrolment of patients submitted to elective CRS with anastomosis in 18 months.

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Nerves are critical structures that may be difficult to recognize during surgery. Inadvertent nerve injuries can have catastrophic consequences for the patient and lead to life-long pain and a reduced quality of life. Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) is a non-invasive technique combining photography with spectroscopy, allowing non-invasive intraoperative biological tissue property quantification.

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