Only four early years postgraduate surgical training posts in the UK meet nationally approved minimum quality standards. Specific recommendations are made to improve training in this cohort and to bolster recruitment and retention into Higher Surgical Training.
Purpose
Coregistered SPECT/CT can improve accuracy of sentinel node biopsy (SNB) for staging melanoma. This benefit has implications for pathology services and surgical practice with increased diagnostic and surgical workload. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of SPECT/CT imaging.
Methods
SNB data were collected over a 10-year period. Preoperative SLN mapping was performed by using planar lymphoscintigraphy (LSG) for all patients (n = 1522) and after October 2015, patients underwent a second co-registered SPECT/CT scan (n = 559). The patients were stratified according to the imaging protocol. The number of nodes and nodal basins were assessed. The reasons for cancellation also were assessed.
Results
A total of 95% (1446/1522) of patients underwent a successful SNB procedure. Significantly more sentinel nodes were identified by the SPECT/CT protocol (3 vs. 2; p < 0.0001). More patients were cancelled in the SPECT/CT cohort (9.3% vs. 2.5%; p < 0.0001). Head & neck, lower limb, and AJCC IB primaries were significantly less likely to proceed to SNB. SPECT/CT identified significantly more positive SNBs (20.9% vs. 16.5%; p = 0.038). SPECT/CT imaging was associated with improved disease-free (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.74; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.54–1.0); p = 0.048) and disease-specific survival (HR = 0.48; 95% CI: 0.3–0.78; p = 0.003). Patients who did not proceed to SNB had a significantly increased nodal relapse rate (23.5% vs. 6.8%; HR = 3.4; 95% CI: 1.9–6.2; p < 0.0001) compared with those who underwent SNB.
Conclusions
This large cohort study confirms the increased accuracy of SPECT/CT for identifying SLN metastases, which would appear to have a significant therapeutic benefit, although an increased risk of cancellation of the SNB procedure on the day of surgery.
Background: Hand and upper limb soft tissue infections result in significant disability and loss of productivity. Many infections have been shown to follow a seasonal variation, however little is known about this is the context of upper limb soft tissue infections. We aimed to evaluate seasonal variation in acute bacterial, hand and upper limb skin and soft-tissue infections, and correlate findings with key environmental variables. Methods: Hand and upper limb soft tissue infection cases from 2006–2016 were retrieved from a single UK center. Cases were reviewed for microbiology culture and sensitivity. Correlation between cases and season, temperature and humidity was assessed. Results: 206 cases were identified for inclusion. Specimens were sent for microbiology in 76.4% of cases. Of these 78.9% were culture positive, 47.6% exhibited antibiotic resistance and 16.9% were multi-resistant. There was a significant difference between season and culture positive cases, with significantly more culture positive cases in the summer vs. winter on post-hoc analysis (p = 0.004). There was a significant positive correlation between higher temperatures and number of culture positive cases (r = 0.75). There was no significant correlation between temperature and antibiotic resistance (r = 0.5) or between humidity and culture positive cases (r = −0.42). Conclusions: This study demonstrates a seasonal variation in hand and upper limb infections, with a significant correlation between infection rates and ambient temperature. Appreciating seasonal variability of these infections could prove beneficial for surgical planning, public health recommendations and antibiotic guidelines. However, further international data is needed to understand potential mechanisms involved.
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