Operative report teaching and synoptic operative reports: a national survey of surgical program directors.

Background: Although operative report documentation (ORD) is an essential skill for surgeons and is evolving with electronic health records (EHRs), little is known about current ORD teaching in surgical training.

Study Design: An electronic survey was sent out in January 2012 to all 1,096 ACGME surgical program directors that assessed characteristics of training programs, EHR adoption, ORD education, synoptic or templated report usage for ORD, and attitudes and opinions about ORD education and electronic tools for ORD. Content thematic analysis of qualitative responses was performed iteratively until reaching saturation.

A study of actions in operative notes.

Operative notes contain rich information about techniques, instruments, and materials used in procedures. To assist development of effective information extraction (IE) techniques for operative notes, we investigated the sublanguage used to describe actions within the operative report 'procedure description' section. Deep parsing results of 362,310 operative notes with an expanded Stanford parser using the SPECIALIST Lexicon resulted in 200 verbs (92% coverage) including 147 action verbs.

Colonic volvulus: presentation and management in metropolitan Minnesota, United States.

Background: Management approaches for colonic volvulus are infrequently described in the literature in the United States, and many studies only report operative cases.

Objective: The aim of this study was to define the demographics, diagnostic and treatment approaches, and outcomes for patients with this disorder in the United States.

Design: This study is a retrospective review.

Indications and Relative Utility of Lower Endoscopy in the Management of Clostridium difficile Infection.

Background. Diagnosis and management of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) rely upon clinical assessments and diagnostic studies. Among diagnostic tests, lower gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy in the setting of CDI remains controversial.