Quality of life and surgical outcome of ABBA versus EndoCATS endoscopic thyroid surgery: a single center experience

BACKGROUND Thyroid surgery is often performed, especially in young female patients. As patient satisfaction become more and more important, different extra-cervical \textquotedblremote\textquotedbl approaches have evolved to avoid visible scars in the neck for better cosmetic outcome. The most common remote approaches are the transaxillary and retroauricular. Aim of this work is to compare Endoscopic Cephalic Access Thyroid Surgery (EndoCATS) and axillo-bilateral-breast approach (ABBA) to standard open procedures regarding perioperative outcome and in addition to control cohorts regarding quality of life (QoL) and patient satisfaction. METHODS In a single center, 59 EndoCATS und 52 ABBA procedures were included out of a 2 years period and compared to 225 open procedures using propensity-score matching. For the endoscopic procedures, cosmetic outcome, patient satisfaction and QoL (SF-12 questionnaire) were examined in prospective follow-up. For QoL a German standard cohort and non-surgically patients with thyroid disease were used as controls. RESULT The overall perioperative outcome was similar for all endoscopic compared to open thyroid surgeries. Surgical time was longer for endoscopic procedures. There were no cases of permanent hypoparathyroidism and no significant differences regarding temporary or permanent recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) palsies between open and ABBA or EndoCATS procedures (χ2; p = 0.893 and 0.840). For ABBA and EndoCATS, 89.6% and 94.2% of patients were satisfied with the surgical procedure. Regarding QoL, there was an overall significant difference in distribution for physical, but not for mental health between groups (p < 0.001 and 0.658). Both endoscopic groups performed slightly worse regarding physical health, but without significant difference between the individual groups in post hoc multiple comparison. CONCLUSION Endoscopic thyroid surgery is safe with comparable perioperative outcome in experienced high-volume centers. Patient satisfaction and cosmetic results are excellent; QoL is impaired in surgical patients, as they perform slightly worse compared to German standard cohort and non-surgical patients

Oral antibiotic bowel decontamination in open and laparoscopic sigmoid resections for diverticular disease

PURPOSE There is an ongoing debate on whether or not to use oral antibiotic bowel decontamination in colorectal surgery, despite the numerous different regimens in terms of antibiotic substances and duration of application. As we routinely use oral antibiotic bowel decontamination (selective decontamination of the digestive tract (SDD) regimen and SDD regimen plus vancomycin since 2016) in surgery for diverticular disease, our aim was to retrospectively analyze the perioperative outcome in two independent centers. METHODS Data from two centers with a routine use of oral antibiotic bowel decontamination for up to 20 years of experience were analyzed for the perioperative outcome of 384 patients undergoing surgery for diverticular disease. RESULTS Overall morbidity was 12.8%, overall mortality was 0.3%, the overall rate of anastomotic leakage (AL) was 1.0%, and surgical site infections (SSIs) were 5.5% and 7.8% of all infectious complications including urinary tract infections and pneumonia. No serious adverse events were related to use of oral antibiotic bowel decontamination. Most of the patients (93.8%) completed the perioperative regimen. Additional use of vancomycin to the SDD regimen did not show a further reduction of infectious complications, including SSI and AL. CONCLUSION Oral antibiotic decontamination appears to be safe and effective with low rates of AL and infectious complications in surgery for diverticular disease

A cervical compartment syndrome impairs cerebral circulation in post-thyroidectomy hemorrhage: data from an animal model

Background: Post thyroidectomy hemorrhage is a potentially life-threatening complication. As the mechanism leading to hypoxemic brain damage and death is still unknown, our aim was to examine the underlaying pathophysiology in an animal model. Methods: A series of experiments was performed in our established model for post thyroidectomy hemorrhage in n=6 pigs. First, post thyroidectomy hemorrhage was simulated with an artificial increase of cervical compartment pressure. Second, spontaneous bleeding into the cervical compartment was initiated. Primary outcome measure is the correlation between cerebral oxygenation and cervical compartment pressure. Results: With an increase in cervical compartment pressure apnea could be detected in all experiments. A significant 24.2% (9.5-34.4%) decrease of cerebral oxygenation at time of apnea (47.0%;38.0-65.0%) compared to baseline values (63.5%;56.0-74.0%;P=0.043) occurred due increase of cervical compartment pressure concurrent with an impaired cerebral perfusion. Apnea occurred about 200 sec after a 10% decrease of cerebral oxygenation, but 35 sec before a 10% decrease of peripheral oxygenation. Spontaneous bleeding into the cervical compartment causes an increase of cervical compartment pressure reaching levels of the mean arterial blood pressure 56.0 (35.0-72.0) mmHg. Conclusions: Peripheral hypoxemia occurs with relevant delay in time after decrease of cerebral perfusion and cerebral hypoxemia, therefore cerebral hypoxemia seems to be causal for a central apnea. With this evidence of impaired cerebral perfusion and cerebral hypoxemia due to an increased cervical compartment pressure we can disprove the historic theory of tracheal collapse due to a compressive hematoma in post thyroidectomy hemorrhage. A cervical compartment syndrome seems to be causal, not only for brain hypoxemia but also an additional laryngo-pharyngeal mucosal edema