Animation Supported Consent Before Elective Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy.

Background: Patient understanding of surgical procedures is often incomplete at the time they are performed, invalidating consent, and exposing healthcare providers to complaints and claims of failure to inform. Remote consultations, language barriers and patient factors can hinder an effective consent pathway. New approaches are needed to support communication and shared decision-making.

Are preoperative CT variables associated with the success or failure of subsequent ventral hernia repair: nested case-control study.

Objectives: Systematic review of CT measurements to predict the success or failure of subsequent ventral hernia repair has found limited data available in the indexed literature. To rectify this, we investigated multiple preoperative CT metrics to identify if any were associated with postoperative reherniation.

Methods: Following ethical permission, we identified patients who had undergone ventral hernia repair and had preoperative CT scanning available.

Publishing peer review materials.

Publishing peer review materials alongside research articles promises to make the peer review process more transparent as well as making it easier to recognise these contributions and give credit to peer reviewers. Traditionally, the peer review reports, editors letters and author responses are only shared between the small number of people in those roles prior to publication, but there is a growing interest in making some or all of these materials available. A small number of journals have been publishing peer review materials for some time, others have begun this practice more recently, and significantly more are now considering how they might begin.

Intraluminal mesh migration causing enteroenteric and enterocutaneous fistula: a case and discussion of the 'mesh problem'.

The use of synthetic mesh in the abdominal compartment has recently become a topic of debate as high profile public cases have called into question their safety. Several case reports have demonstrated significant complications due to intra-abdominal mesh. Furthermore, some studies have suggested that the rates of these severe complications are underestimated.

Frequency of reporting on patient and public involvement (PPI) in research studies published in a general medical journal: a descriptive study.

Objectives: While documented plans for patient and public involvement (PPI) in research are required in many grant applications, little is known about how frequently PPI occurs in practice. Low levels of reported PPI may mask actual activity due to limited PPI reporting requirements. This research analysed the frequency and types of reported PPI in the presence and absence of a journal requirement to include this information.

Imaging complex ventral hernias, their surgical repair, and their complications.

Unlabelled: Complex ventral hernia (CVH) describes large, anterior, ventral hernias. The incidence of CVH is rising rapidly due to increasing laparotomy rates in ever older, obese and co-morbid patients. Surgeons with a specific interest in CVH repair are now frequently referring these patients for imaging, normally computed tomography scanning.

Use of imaging for pre- and post-operative characterisation of ventral hernia: systematic review.

Objective: Complex ventral hernia (CVH) repair is performed increasingly, exacerbated by the obesity epidemic. Imaging can characterise hernia morphology and diagnose recurrence. By systematic review we investigated the extent to which studies employ imaging.

Impact of Surgihoney Reactive Oxygen on surgical site infection (SSI) after complex abdominal wall reconstruction (AWR) of grade 3 and 4 ventral Hernias: A single arm pilot study.

Introduction: Following Abdominal Wall Reconstruction (AWR) wound infections occur in over one third of patients and rates can be even higher in entero-cutaneous fistula repair. A novel antimicrobial gel has been engineered by microbiologists called Surgihoney Reactive Oxygen (SHRO). SHRO gel will be applied to a group of patients.

High-grade myxofibrosarcoma of the abdominal wall.

The authors present a case of a 57-year-old man, who presented to the surgical clinic with a mass in the suprapubic region. A CT scan revealed a well-circumscribed lobular, heterogeneous soft tissue mass measuring 12×8.6×7.

Spontaneous mesenteric haematoma; diagnosis and management.

Spontaneous mesenteric haematomas are rare. They have been reported to be associated with coagulopathies, connective tissue disorders, past trauma, arteriopathy and pancreatitis. However, some cases have been reported in which there is no apparent underlying aetiology.