Long-term Survival Outcomes for Men Who Provided Ejaculate Specimens for Prostate Cancer Research: Implications for Patient Management

Background: Determining whether men diagnosed with early prostate cancer (PCa) will live long enough to benefit from interventions with curative intent is difficult. Although validated instruments for predicting patient survival are available, these do not have clinical utility so are not used routinely in practice. Objective: To test the hypothesis that volunteers who provided ejaculate specimens had a high survival rate at 10 and 15 yr and beyond. Design, setting, and participants: A total of 290 patients investigated because of high serum prostate-specific antigen donated ejaculate specimens for research between January 1992 and May 2003. The median age at the time of ejaculation was 63.5 yr. 153 of the donors were diagnosed with PCa and followed up to December 31, 2013. Outcome measurements and statistical analysis: Survival outcomes were compared with those for the whole population, as indicated by life expectancy tables up to 20 yr. Results and limitations: Men in the PCa group had life expectancies comparable with values listed in life expectancy tables for the whole population. Overall, PCa-specific and relative survival were significantly better for men in the non-PCa and PCa groups in comparison with men diagnosed with PCa in Queensland during the same period. Relative survival for those aged 20-49, 50-64, and ≥65 yr was >100% for ejaculate donors and 81.5%, 82.7%, and 65.2%, respectively, for the Queensland Cancer Registry reference at 10 yr. These findings for this highly selected patient cohort support the hypothesis that an ability to provide an ejaculate specimen is associated with a high likelihood of surviving 10-20 yr after donation, whether or not PCa was detected. Conclusion: Life expectancy tables may serve as a quick and simple life expectancy indicator for biopsy patients who donate ejaculate. Patient summary: Life expectancy tables indicated survival of up to 20 yr for men who provided ejaculate specimens for prostate cancer research. Life expectancy tables indicated survival of up to 20 yr for men who provided ejaculate specimens for prostate cancer research

Management of oesophageal intramucosal carcinoma

We present an interesting case of an intramucosal carcinoma (IMC) in the setting of Barrett's oesophagus in a 66-year-old woman. Her clinical course highlights the shifting paradigm in the approach to management of Barrett's oesophagus and IMC. With innovation in imaging and endoscopic treatment modalities, patients are detected earlier and managed prior to development of malignancy. The patient was treated with endoscopic modalities, and after 3 years' follow-up, she remains recurrence free

A Quality Assessment of Information Available on Renal Cancer on YouTube

ObjectivesMany people are turning to alternatives to the conventional doctor-patient relationship, such as web-based search engines and video forums for their health care information. We undertook this study to investigate the quality of videos and information on renal cancer available on the streaming platform YouTube.MethodsWe completed a search of YouTube (w w w.YouTube.com) in September 2021 with the term “kidney cancer.” The first 120 videos found which met the inclusion criteria (English speaking, duration greater than one minute, greater than 500 views, renal cancer addressed) were selected. We recorded information including duration, view count, likes, dislikes, comments, publisher, and author. The modified DISCERN tool and Global Quality Score (GQS) questionnaire were used to assess the quality of the included videos. The level of misinformation was assessed using a Likert 5-point scale. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the collected data. A 2-sample t test was used to further analyse the quality assessment tool results before, during, and after 2016.ResultsMost videos were published during or after 2016 (63.3%), were predominantly created in North America (77.5%), and were presented by health care professionals (60%). The median length of the videos was 4.23 (1.01 to 65.55) minutes, and the median number of views was 3087 (514 to 228 152). The median number of likes and dislikes was 24 and 5, respectively. The median modified DISCERN score was 3, the median GQS score was 3, and the grading for overall level of misinformation was moderate.ConclusionThe quality of information accessed from YouTube on kidney cancer is of a low to moderate overall standard with significant levels of misinformation. YouTube should not be used alone for educational purposes on renal cancer by patients or the public. It is best used in conjunction with information and advice from a medical practitioner and the health care system

Causes of recurrence in laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair (vol 22, pg 975, 2018)

In the original publication, affiliation 3 was incorrectly published for the author 'Darius Ashrafi'. The correct affiliation should read as 'Department of Surgery, Sunshine Coast University Hospital, Birtinya, QLD, Australia

Causes of recurrence in laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair

Recurrence after laparoscopic inguinal herniorrhaphy is poorly understood. Reports suggest that up to 13% of all inguinal herniorrhaphies worldwide, irrespective of the approach, are repaired for recurrence. We aim to review the risk factors responsible for these recurrences in laparoscopic mesh techniques.A search of the Medline, Embase, Science Citation Index, Current Contents and PubMed databases identified English language, peer reviewed articles on the causes of recurrence following laparoscopic mesh inguinal herniorrhaphy published between 1990 and 2018. The search terms included 'Laparoscopic methods', 'Inguinal hernia; Mesh repair', 'Recurrence', 'Causes', 'Humans'.The literature revealed several contributing risk factors that were responsible for recurrence following laparoscopic mesh inguinal herniorrhaphy. These included modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors related to patient and surgical techniques.Recurrence can occur at any stage following inguinal hernia surgery. Patients' risk factors such as higher BMI, smoking, diabetes and postoperative surgical site infections increase the risk of recurrence and can be modified. Amongst the surgical factors, surgeon's experience, larger mesh with better tissue overlap and careful surgical techniques to reduce the incidence of seroma or hematoma help reduce the recurrence rate. Other factors including type of mesh and fixation of mesh have not shown any difference in the incidence of recurrence. It is hoped that future randomized controlled trials will address some of these issues and initiate preoperative management strategies to modify some of these risk factors to lower the risk of recurrence following laparoscopic inguinal herniorrhaphy

Outcomes of robotic modified Freyer's prostatectomy in an Australian patient cohort

Abstract Introduction The study aims to demonstrate the feasibility, safety and efficacy of robotic simple prostatectomy (RSP) using the modified Freyer's approach in an Australian patient cohort. Although RSP is performed in several Australian centres, there is a paucity of published Australian data. Methods We reviewed prospectively collected perioperative and outcomes data for patients who underwent a robotic modified Freyer's prostatectomy (RMFP) from June 2019 to March 2022. Statistics were completed using SPSS statistics v27.0 and reported as mean and range with a p value of <0.05 considered statistically significant. Results There were 27 patients who underwent RMFP over the study period with a mean age of 67 years and prostate volume of 159.74 cc (100–275). The mean console time was 168 min (122–211), blood loss of 233 ml (50–600) and average length of hospital stay of 3.8 days (3–8). The preoperative versus postoperative outcome means were as follows: serum prostate‐specific antigen was 9.69 versus 1.2 ng/mL, IPPS score was 17.1 versus 1.25, quality of life (QOL) score 3.4 versus 0.4, postvoid residual volume: 223.6 versus 55.9 ml, Q‐max 7.86 versus 29.6 ml/s. These were all statistically significant (p < 0.001). The mean weight of resected tissue was 74 g (43–206) with 25 patients having benign histopathology and two being diagnosed with prostate cancer (Gleason 3 + 3 = 6 and 3 + 4 = 7). No patients returned to theatre or required a blood transfusion. Conclusions Data from our patient cohort demonstrate the feasibility, safety and efficacy of RMFP for benign prostatic hyperplasia in an Australian patient cohort. Our outcomes compare favourably with published studies on RSP

Snapshot of trauma laparotomy deaths in Queensland

Trauma remains the most frequent cause of death for patients under 35 years of age. Head injury and catastrophic haemorrhage account for the majority of early deaths. A trauma laparotomy is often necessary to arrest haemorrhage.All patients who died in Queensland hospitals between 2011 and 2016 having had a trauma laparotomy were identified from the Queensland Audit of Surgical Mortality.About 69.0% of the 84 deaths were male with a median age of 47.6 years. About 64.3% of deaths occurred within the first 2 days following trauma. Mechanism of injury was typically road traffic accident (77.4%). Sixteen patients underwent a non-therapeutic laparotomy. Following peer-review, different management was recommended for only three patients.This group of patients who died in the setting of a trauma laparotomy received high quality trauma care. Ongoing education is needed as some non-therapeutic laparotomies may be avoidable