Outcomes of Colectomy and Proctectomy According to Surgeon Training: General vs Colorectal Surgeons.

Background: Colectomies and proctectomies are commonly performed by both general surgeons (GS) and colorectal surgeons (CRS). The aim of our study was to examine the outcomes of elective colectomy, urgent colectomy, and elective proctectomy according to surgeon training.

Study Design: Data were obtained from the Vizient database for adults who underwent elective colectomy, urgent colectomy, and elective proctectomy from 2020 to 2022.

Endometrial Adenocarcinoma with Discordant Microsatellite Stability Status Treated with First-Line Pembrolizumab: A Case Report and Narrative Review.

BACKGROUND Microsatellite instability (MSI) is a hallmark of specific cancers and can be diagnosed using both tissue- and liquid-based approaches. When these tissue- and liquid-based approaches give differing results, they are known as discordant or being at variance. MSI-H tumors are well-researched candidates for treatment with programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitor-based immunotherapy, but the efficacy of immunotherapy in MSI-H discordant endometrial cancer, especially as first-line therapy, is not yet well documented in the literature.

Surgical Management of Crohn's Disease.

Treatment of Crohn's disease (CD) focuses on providing acceptable quality of life for the affected individual by optimizing medical therapy, endoscopic procedures, and surgical intervention. Biologics have changed the medical management of moderate to severe CD. However, despite their introduction, the need for surgical resection in CD has not drastically changed, with two-thirds of the patients still requiring an intestinal resection.

Making Smectic Defect Patterns Electrically Reversible and Dynamically Tunable Using In Situ Polymer-Templated Nematic Liquid Crystals.

Shaping liquid crystals (LCs) into arrays of defect patterns enables the design of composite materials with new stimuli-responsive properties. Self-assembled defect assemblies that may arise in layered smectic A (SmA) LCs such as focal conic domains (FCDs), exhibit remarkable optical features and abilities for ordering nanoparticles. However, such SmA defect patterns are essentially electrically irreversible, which currently limits their adjustability in a dynamic way.

How We Do It: Implementing a Virtual, Multi-Institutional Collaborative Education Model for the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond.

Objective: To describe the implementation of a virtual, multi-institutional educational collaboration involving over 50 general surgery residency programs during the COVID-19 pandemic that enabled enhanced learning for surgical residents despite social-distancing requirements.

Design: Description of Virginia Commonwealth University's virtual educational augmentation program and the development of a collaborative teaching network during the coronavirus pandemic.

Setting: This collaboration was initiated by Virginia Commonwealth University's Department of Surgery, Richmond, VA, and grew to include general surgery residency programs from across the nation.

Molecular characterization of mitochondrial Amerindian haplogroups and the amelogenin gene in human ancient DNA from three archaeological sites in Lambayeque - Peru.

Important pre-Inca civilizations, known by their great political and religious structures, inhabited the northern coast of Peru. Archeological and anthropological studies have shown that people from these villages have hierarchical strata, but the genetic structure has been poorly studied. Here, we aimed to perform a molecular characterization of the Amerindian maternal lineages and the amelogenin gene in skeletons collected from three archeological sites in Lambayeque.

Efficacy of Virtual Case-Based General Surgery Clerkship Curriculum During COVID-19 Distancing.

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic created a paradigm shift in medical education with a reliance upon alternative teaching methods to deliver meaningful surgery clerkship content. This study examines the efficacy of a novel, case-based virtual surgery clerkship curriculum to determine its impact on student experience during quarantine.

Study Design: Sixteen third-year medical students enrolled in the General Surgery clerkship between April through June 2020 during COVID-19 distancing at a quaternary medical center (Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH) participated in this study.

Survival impact based on hepatic artery lymph node status in pancreatic adenocarcinoma: A study of patients receiving modern chemotherapy.

Background: Chemotherapy for pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has significantly improved in recent years. While the involvement of the hepatic artery lymph node (HALN; station 8a lymph node) likely represents advanced disease, a comparison to patients with metastases on modern chemotherapy is lacking.

Methods: Patients who underwent pancreatoduodenectomy with HALN sent for pathologic review at a single institution from 2003 to 2018 were reviewed.

Impact of Surgery Program Characteristics on Fate of Non-designated Preliminary Surgery Interns.

Objective: Non-designated preliminary (NDP) general surgery residents face the daunting challenge of obtaining a categorical residency position while undertaking the rigors of a general surgery residency. This additional application cycle represents a stressful time for these trainees and limited data exists to help guide applicants and program directors regarding the factors predictive of application success. While previous studies have focused solely on applicant related factors, no study to date has evaluated the effect of the residency program structure, institutional resources, or administrative support on these outcomes.

Mercury Chalcogenide Nanoplatelet-Quantum Dot Heterostructures as a New Class of Continuously Tunable Bright Shortwave Infrared Emitters.

Despite broad applications in imaging, energy conversion, and telecommunications, few nanoscale moieties emit light efficiently in the shortwave infrared (SWIR, 1000-2000 nm or 1.24-0.62 eV).

Effect of critical care complications on perioperative mortality and hospital length of stay after hepatectomy: A multicenter analysis of 21,443 patients.

Objective: To determine predictors of critical care complications (CCC) in patients undergoing hepatectomy.

Methods: All hepatectomy patients in NSQIP from 2012 to 2016 were analyzed. CCC included prolonged ventilation (>48 h), sepsis/septic shock, renal failure/insufficiency, cardiac arrest/AMI and pulmonary embolism.

Socioeconomic factors as predictors of organ donation.

Background: Despite numerous initiatives to increase solid organs for transplant, the gap between donors and recipients widens. There is little in the literature identifying socioeconomic predictors for donation. We evaluate the correlation between socioeconomic factors and familial authorization for donation.

Evidence of the immunomodulatory role of dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitors in transplantation: an experimental study in mice.

The PI3K/mTOR signaling cascade is fundamental in T-cell activation and fate decisions. We showed the distinct regulation of PI3K/mTOR in regulatory and effector T-cells and proposed the potential therapeutic benefit of targeting this pathway to control the balance between effector and regulatory T-cell activities. Substantial adverse effects in long-term clinical usage of rapamycin suggest the use of alternative treatments in restraining effector T-cell function in transplant patients.

Sorafenib and FH535 in combination act synergistically on hepatocellular carcinoma by targeting cell bioenergetics and mitochondrial function.

Treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains a challenge due to the high tumor heterogeneity. In the present study, we aim to evaluate the impact of the β-catenin inhibitor, FH535, alone or in combination with the Ras/Raf/MAPK inhibitor Sorafenib, on the bioenergetics profiles of the HCC cell lines Huh7 and PLC/PRF/5. Single low-dose treatments with FH535 or Sorafenib promoted different effects on mitochondrial respiration and glycolysis in a cell type specific manner.

Decreased graft survival in liver transplant recipients of donors with positive blood cultures: a review of the United Network for Organ Sharing dataset.

Liver transplantation using blood culture positive donors (BCPD) has allowed a significant expansion of the donor pool. We aimed to characterize BCPD and assess the outcomes of BCPD liver transplant recipients. We retrieved data from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) registry on all adults who underwent primary, single-organ deceased-donor liver transplantation in the USA between 2008 and 2013.

Cancer stem cell marker expression alone and in combination with microvascular invasion predicts poor prognosis in patients undergoing transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma.

Background: The cancer stem cell hypothesis provides an explanation for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) heterogeneity. We investigated the expression of CD44 and CD133 alone and in combination with microvascular invasion (MVI) as predictors of prognosis in patients undergoing liver transplantation for HCC.

Methods: Explanted livers from 95 patients transplanted for HCC were analyzed.

Liver transplantation for the treatment of neuroendocrine liver metastases.

Neuroendocrine neoplasms represent a heterogeneous group of cancers arising from a variety of neuroendocrine cell types. In general, these tumors (NET) are asymptomatic and are discovered late once metastatic disease is present (40-80%). The liver is the most common organ involved when metastases occur (40-93%), followed by bone (12-20%) and lungs (8-10%).

Donor positive blood culture is associated with delayed graft function in kidney transplant recipients: a propensity score analysis of the UNOS database.

Background: The effect of blood culture positive donor (BCPD) on delayed graft function (DGF) in kidney transplant recipients has not been well established.

Methods: We retrieved data from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) registry on all adults who underwent primary, single organ deceased-donor kidney transplantation in US between 2008 and 2013. Patients were classified in two cohorts: the BCPD cohort and the non-BCPD cohort.

Targeting Wnt/β-catenin pathway in hepatocellular carcinoma treatment.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common causes of cancer-related death worldwide. Liver cancer is generally related to hepatitis B or C infection and cirrhosis. Usually, patients with HCC are asymptomatic and are diagnosed at late stages when surgical treatment is no longer suitable.

Long-term outcome of patients undergoing liver transplantation for mixed hepatocellular carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma: an analysis of the UNOS database.

Background: Mixed hepatocellular and cholangiocarcinoma (HCC-CC) have been associated with a poor prognosis after liver transplantation (LT). We aimed to evaluate long-term outcomes in patients undergoing LT for HCC-CC versus patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) or cholangiocarcinoma (CC).

Methods: Retrospective analysis of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) database from 1994-2013.

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis is strongly associated with sarcopenic obesity in patients with cirrhosis undergoing liver transplant evaluation.

Background: Sarcopenia is the most common complication of cirrhosis and adversely affects quality of life and outcomes before, during, and after liver transplantation. We studied predictors of sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity in patients with cirrhosis undergoing liver transplant (LT) evaluation.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of 207 adult cirrhotic patients that underwent LT from January 2008 to December 2013 was performed at our institution.

A prospective analysis of factors associated with decreased physical activity in patients with cirrhosis undergoing transplant evaluation.

Background: Physical activity (PA) has been associated with improved recovery time after transplantation. Handgrip strength has been related to post-transplant outcomes.

Aim: To evaluate predictors of PA and grip strength in patients with cirrhosis undergoing liver transplant evaluation.

N-Aryl benzenesulfonamide inhibitors of [3H]-thymidine incorporation and β-catenin signaling in human hepatocyte-derived Huh-7 carcinoma cells.

Structure-activity relationships (SAR) in 2,5-dichloro-N-(2-methyl-4-nitrophenyl)benzenesulfonamide (FH535) were examined as part of a program to identify agents that inhibit the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway that is frequently upregulated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). FH535 was reported as an inhibitor of both β-catenin in the Wnt signaling pathway and the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR). A β-catenin/T-cell factor (TCF)/Lymphoid-enhancer factor (LEF)-dependent assay (i.