To Drain or Not: Drainage Procedures Remain a Central Tenet of Management of Infected Collections in Acute Pancreatitis

Recent literature advocates for delayed or avoidance of catheter drainage of infected peri-pancreatic collections (IPCs) in acute pancreatitis (AP). This may not be realistic for patients at academic centers, many of whom are critically ill. We retrospectively reviewed 72 patients admitted to our institution from 2016-2021 with AP and IPCs. 34.7% had a Bedside Index of Severity in Acute Pancreatitis (BISAP) score ≥3, and 56.9% had a Balthazar score of E. 65.3% were admitted to the ICU, 51.4% experienced respiratory failure, and 47.2% had acute renal failure. In-hospital mortality was 9.7%. Catheter-based drainage alone was the most frequent intervention. Only 8 individuals did not undergo any drainage. Individuals with severe AP complicated by IPCs are critically ill. Avoidance or delay of source control could lead to significant morbidity. Until further research is done on this population, drainage should remain a central tenet of management of IPCs.

Implementation of a Traumatic Brain Injury Guideline at A Dod Level 1 Trauma Center

BACKGROUND

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the most prevalent diagnoses among trauma populations and places significant strain on valuable rural hospital resources. Limited studies show safety and efficacy of implementation of a Brain Injury Guideline (BIG) protocol at a Department of Defense (DoD) Level 1 trauma center.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Data from patients diagnosed with traumatic brain injury during the study period were collected from our institutional trauma database. A retrospective review was performed on patients identified in the database to collect demographic and injury related data. All primary and secondary outcome data were analyzed using two-tailed Fischer's exact tests, Pearson Chi-square tests, and non-parametric Mann Whitney U tests.

RESULTS

A total of 354 patients were included in the study, 189 pre-implementation and 165 post-implementation. Demographics, head injury severity, initial HCT findings, and BIG classification distributions were well-matched. There was a significant reduction in neurosurgical consultations (NSC) (98.4% pre- to 77.0% post-implementation, P<0.001) and ICU admissions (84.1% pre-, 74.5% post-implementation, P=0.025) following protocol implementation. There were no differences between groups in ICU LOS (P=0.239), incidence of worsening findings on RHCT (P=0.894), or in-hospital mortality (P=0.814). There was a slight reduction in hospital LOS from 4.0d pre-implementation to 3.0d post-implementation (P=0.043).

CONCLUSIONS

Implementation of a BIG protocol at our Level 1 trauma center suggested at a relationship with fewer NSCs and ICU admissions. Management of mild and moderate TBI by acute care and trauma surgeons without direct neurosurgical oversight is safe and implies a reduction in utilization of hospital resources.

Neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy is beneficial for clinical stage T2 N0 esophageal cancer patients due to inaccurate preoperative staging

BACKGROUND

It remains unclear if patients with clinical stage T2 N0 (cT2 N0) esophageal cancer should be offered induction therapy vs surgical intervention alone.

METHODS

This was a retrospective cohort study of cT2 N0 patients undergoing induction therapy, followed by surgical resection, or resection alone, at the Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1989 to 2009. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to compare all-cause mortality in cT2 N0 patients who had resection alone vs those who had induction chemoradiation therapy, followed by resection.

RESULTS

A study cohort of 69 patients was identified and divided into two groups: 55 patients (79.7%) received induction therapy and 14 (20.3%) did not. No statistically significant difference in 5-year survival rate was observed for the two groups: 49.5% for the resection-only group and 53.8% for the induction group. More than 50% of cT2 N0 patients were understaged.

CONCLUSIONS

For cT2 N0 esophageal cancer patients, the benefit of neoadjuvant therapy is still unclear. Induction therapy for cT2 N0 did not translate into a statistically significant improvement in survival. However, due to the significant understaging of T2 N0 patients, we recommend neoadjuvant therapy to all cT2N0 patients before operation.

Lizard Species in Small Mainland Habitat Isolates and Islands off South-western Western Australia

Slopes and elevation of the regression of lizard species richness versus area for small ( < 25 ha) isolated areas of 'natural' vegetation in the Western Australian wheatbelt are not significantly different from those for Western Australian continental island groups. Similar-sized coral islands in Houtman Abrolhos, however, have relatively few lizards, and their species richness is independent of area. This is not attributed to ecological instability of coral islands but to the homogeneous habitat of coral islands and the nature of 'strand' lizards. No family of lizards appears to be favoured in small isolates or islands. It is suggested that the ecologically more generalized species predominate in small areas.