The development and validation of a scoring tool to predict the operative duration of elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Background: The ability to accurately predict operative duration has the potential to optimise theatre efficiency and utilisation, thus reducing costs and increasing staff and patient satisfaction. With laparoscopic cholecystectomy being one of the most commonly performed procedures worldwide, a tool to predict operative duration could be extremely beneficial to healthcare organisations. Methods: Data collected from the CholeS study on patients undergoing cholecystectomy in UK and Irish hospitals between 04/2014 and 05/2014 were used to study operative duration. A multivariable binary logistic regression model was produced in order to identify significant independent predictors of long (> 90 min) operations. The resulting model was converted to a risk score, which was subsequently validated on second cohort of patients using ROC curves. Results: After exclusions, data were available for 7227 patients in the derivation (CholeS) cohort. The median operative duration was 60 min (interquartile range 45–85), with 17.7% of operations lasting longer than 90 min. Ten factors were found to be significant independent predictors of operative durations > 90 min, including ASA, age, previous surgical admissions, BMI, gallbladder wall thickness and CBD diameter. A risk score was then produced from these factors, and applied to a cohort of 2405 patients from a tertiary centre for external validation. This returned an area under the ROC curve of 0.708 (SE = 0.013, p  90 min increasing more than eightfold from 5.1 to 41.8% in the extremes of the score. Conclusion: The scoring tool produced in this study was found to be significantly predictive of long operative durations on validation in an external cohort. As such, the tool may have the potential to enable organisations to better organise theatre lists and deliver greater efficiencies in care

‘Mesh hiatal hernioplasty’ versus ‘suture cruroplasty’ in laparoscopic para-oesophageal hernia surgery; a systematic review and meta-analysis

Summary: In laparoscopic ‘paraoesophageal hernia’ (POH) repair, non-absorbable suture materials have been used to close the crural defects. More recently, various types of prosthetic mesh have been utilized to repair the defect. We conducted a systematic review with meta-analysis of the recent and up to-date studies incorporating 942 POH repairs. We examined the rates of recurrence, reoperation, and complication rates alongside operative time of these two techniques in the management POH. Randomized controlled trials (RCT) and observational studies comparing mesh hiatal hernioplasty versus Suture cruroplasty for Paraoesophageal hernia were selected by searching Medline, Embase, and Cochrane Central database published between January 1995 and December 2016. Predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied to select the studies. The outcome variables analysed are recurrence of hiatal hernia, reoperation, operative time and complications. Nine studies (RCTs = 4 and Observational studies = 5) were analysed totalling 942 patients (Mesh = 517, Suture cruroplasty = 425). The pooled effect size for recurrence favoured mesh repair over suture cruroplasty (OR 0.48, 95% CI 0.32, 0.73, P < 0.05). But the operation time is significantly less in suture cruroplasty (SMD 15.40, 95% CI 7.92, 22.88, P < 0.0001). Comparable effect sizes were noted for both groups which included reoperation (OR 0.35, 95%CI 0.09, 1.31, P = 0.12) and complication rates (OR 1.30, 95%CI 0.74, 2.29, P = 0.36). Our systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrates that mesh hiatoplasty and suture cruroplasty produce comparable results with regards to reoperation rate and complications following the repair of paraoesophageal hernias (POH). Moreover, the study showed significant reduction of recurrence following mesh hiatoplasty. Keywords: Paraoesophageal, Hiatus hernia, Laparoscopy, Mes