HAI pump complications: Half can be salvaged
In 2,935 hepatic artery infusion pump placements, 26% had a pump-related complication; just over half of those patients were able to continue HAI chemotherapy after intervention.
Newsletter
General Surgery
Best Papers in General Surgery
The five that matter, every day.
Surgical safety depends on systems, not blame
This review argues that preventing surgical harm requires linking event reporting, structured analysis, and ongoing performance review within a just culture—not treating each adverse event as an isolated failure.
Technical difficulty did not worsen TaTME cancer outcomes
In this 210-patient multicenter cohort, higher technical difficulty during TaTME prolonged operating time but was not associated with worse recurrence or survival outcomes.
On-demand necrosectomy holds up in pancreatic necrosis
After EUS-guided drainage for infected necrotizing pancreatitis, immediate necrosectomy showed no clear clinical advantage over waiting to intervene as needed—and may expose more patients to the procedure.
Climate extremes may strain general surgery—but evidence is thin
A scoping review found that heat and extreme weather are associated with changing surgical demand, disrupted access, and worse outcomes, but the evidence is too limited to guide practice changes.
Botox fails to prevent fistula after distal pancreatectomy
Preoperative botulinum toxin injection into the sphincter of Oddi did not reduce clinically relevant fistula after distal pancreatectomy; fistulas were numerically more frequent with injection.
SSTR PET finds more distant disease in GEP-NETs
In this 24-year surgical cohort, SSTR PET identified bone and retroperitoneal nodal metastases more often than Octreoscan—findings that may matter for operative planning.
Quantitative CT sharpens IPMN risk prediction
In resected IPMNs, adding quantitative CT features to guideline criteria modestly improved prediction of high-grade dysplasia or cancer—potentially useful for risk assessment, but not yet ready to guide surgery.
Lightweight mesh linked to more ventral hernia recurrence
Journal Article by Kerr SW, Hinton LR (...) Heniford BT et 4 al. in BMC Surg
Diverticulitis guideline favors surgery after abscess
A new multi-society guideline suggests elective resection for patients with persistent symptoms after recurrent uncomplicated diverticulitis and for those recovering from a first diverticular abscess—but these are conditional recommendations, not mandates.