RATIONALE/OBJECTIVES: The Turnbull-Cutait transanal pullthrough procedure with delayed coloanal anastomosis has been widely used before the advent of intestinal stapling devices. It is a viable option for rectal reconstruction for benign and malignant conditions, and is able to maintain intestinal continuity without the use of a temporary diversion. It has also been used in salvage operations for pelvic sepsis, failed anastomosis, and tumor recurrence that will otherwise require a permanent ileostomy. This study will describe the technique, as well as the outcomes of patients who underwent the procedure. METHODS: This is a retrospective descriptive study conducted to report the outcomes of patients who underwent the Turnbull-Cutait transanal pull-through with delayed coloanal anastomosis at the Philippine General Hospital from January 2008 to December 2013. Eleven patients were identified using an institutional retrospective database. Clinical data and outcomes were collected using a standard form. RESULTS: Ten of the 11 patients had an unremarkable postoperative course. One patient had an anastomotic dehiscence. The mean operative time was 229.9 minutes for the 1st stage and 28.2 minutes for the second stage, with a mean blood loss of 463.6 cc for both stages. The mean interval between the two stages was 7.9 days, with an average postoperative length of stay of 8.27 days. The average follow-up was 4.5 years. Functional outcomes were acceptable (average Wexner score 5.63), except for one patient who had an anastomotic dehiscence. No perioperative mortality was noted. CONCLUSION Turnbull-Cutait trans-anal pullthrough procedure with delayed coloanal anastomosis appears to be a safe procedure. The study suggests that it is an alternative strategy in rectal cancer in providing a sphincter-saving surgery, with the establishment of gastrointestinal continuity, and without the need for a proximal diversion. Stoma-less surgery has a notable health economic impact especially in developing countries because it eliminates the costs associated with the use of stoma appliances.

BACKGROUND: Hirschsprung’s disease (HD) is rare in adults, since a majority of cases are corrected in childhood. OBJECTIVES: The authors describe the profile of patients with HD who reached adulthood without having undergone corrective surgery. Also, they describe the outcomes of a modified Duhamel procedure in these patients, in terms of morbidity and mortality. METHODS: This retrospective study, included patients 18 years old and above, diagnosed with HD who reached adulthood without having undergone definitive repair and managed surgically by the Division of Colorectal Surgery, UP-PGH from January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2014. A review from the Department Surgical Database was used and patients’ hospital records were used to fill out a Data Collection Form. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data. RESULTS: The 13 patients included in the study were diagnosed at an average age of 16.6 (± 13.16) years. The mean age at the time of definitive surgery was 23.46 (± 6.96) years. The M:F ratio was 5.5:1. The most common presenting symptom was constipation (69.23%). All had a prior proximal bowel diversion, with a transverse loop colostomy (61.54%) being the most common. The transition zone was located in the sigmoid in a third of patients. The mean time from diagnosis to definitive surgery was 6.69 years. Eight (61.54%) have since undergone stoma reversal. There was only one (7.69%) morbidity, a superficial surgical site infection. No mortalities were reported. CONCLUSION The modified Duhamel procedure is a safe definitive surgical procedure for the adult patient with HD.

Chronic GVHD was recognized as a complication of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation more than 30 years ago, but progress has been slowed by the limited insight into the pathogenesis of the disease and the mechanisms that lead to development of immunological tolerance. Only 6 randomized phase III treatment studies have been reported. Results of retrospective studies and prospective phase II clinical trials suggested overall benefit from treatment with mycophenolate mofetil or thalidomide, but these results were not substantiated by phase III studies of initial systemic treatment for chronic GVHD. A comprehensive review of published reports showed numerous deficiencies in studies of secondary treatment for chronic GVHD. Fewer than 10% of reports documented an effort to minimize patient selection bias, used a consistent treatment regimen, or tested a formal statistical hypothesis that was based on a contemporaneous or historical benchmark. In order to enable valid comparison of the results from different studies, eligibility criteria, definitions of individual organ and overall response, and time of assessment should be standardized. Improved treatments are more likely to emerge if reviewers and journal editors hold authors to higher standards in evaluating manuscripts for publication.
Bias (Epidemiology) ; Cell Transplantation ; Mycophenolic Acid ; Patient Selection ; Publications ; Thalidomide ; Transplants

Buschke-Lowenstein tumor (BLT) is a sexually transmitted infection (STI) caused by the human papillomavirus. This study investigated the profile, management, and outcomes of patients who underwent surgery for BLT from 2015 to 2019 at the Philippine General Hospital. Seven patients underwent surgery for BLT. All were male, with ages ranging from 21 to 41 years. Presenting symptoms were anal mass, foul-smelling discharge, pain, bleeding, and pruritus. All were positive for human immunodeficiency virus. All admitted to having engaged in both insertive and receptive anal intercourse, with multiple partners. All underwent excision with healing by secondary intention. Two had recurrence of warts. Four had an anal stricture. Of these, 3 underwent anal dilatation, while 1 had to undergo proximal bowel diversion. One had intraepithelial carcinoma without dermal invasion on histopathologic analysis. BLT is a rare STI characterized by local aggressiveness but with low malignant potential. Wide excision remains to be the mainstay of treatment.

McKittrick-Wheelock syndrome is a rare and life-threatening disease characterized by the triad of (1) chronic mucous diarrhea, (2) renal function impairment with hydroelectrolyte imbalance, and (3) a giant colorectal tumor. Often, the tumor is a rectal adenoma. With the mortality being certain, if left untreated, it is important to raise awareness on the presentation, diagnosis, and management of this disease entity. Here, we presented 3 cases of McKittrick-Wheelock syndrome that were successfully managed with surgical resection at the Philippine General Hospital from August 2018 to May 2019. Resolution of their symptoms, reversal of their renal impairment, and correction of their electrolyte depletion were noted after removal of the tumor with a sphincter-saving operation.

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate surgical outcomes (i.e. length of stay [LOS], 30-day morbidity, mortality, reoperation, and readmission rates) with the use of the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) pathway, and determine its association with the rate of compliance to the different ERAS components. Methods: This was a prospective cohort of patients, who underwent the following elective procedures: stoma reversal (SR), colon resection (CR), and rectal resection (RR). The primary endpoint was to determine the association of compliance to an ERAS pathway and surgical outcomes. These were then retrospectively compared to outcomes prior to the implementation of ERAS. Results: A total of 267 patients were included in the study. The overall compliance to the ERAS component was 92.0% (SR, 91.8%; CR, 93.1%; RR, 90.7%). There was an associated decrease in morbidity rates across all types of surgery, as compliance to ERAS increased. The average total LOS decreased in all groups but was only found to have statistical significance in SR (12.1±6.7 days vs. 10.0±5.4 days, P=0.002) and RR (19.9±11.4 days vs. 16.9±10.5 days, P=0.04) groups. Decreased postoperative LOS was noted in all groups. Morbidity rates were significantly higher after ERAS implementation, but reoperation and mortality rates were found to be similar. Conclusion Increased compliance to ERAS protocol is associated with a decrease in morbidity across all surgery types. The implementation of an ERAS protocol significantly decreased mean hospital LOS, without any increase in major surgical complications. Having your own hospital ERAS pathway improves documentation and accuracy of reporting surgical complications.

No abstract available.
Carotid Stenosis ; Cerebral Hemorrhage ; Endarterectomy ; Humans ; Stents

Objective: To develop a machine learning (ML) pipeline based on radiomics to predict Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) severity and the future deterioration to critical illness using CT and clinical variables. Materials and Methods: Clinical data were collected from 981 patients from a multi-institutional international cohort with real-time polymerase chain reaction-confirmed COVID-19. Radiomics features were extracted from chest CT of the patients. The data of the cohort were randomly divided into training, validation, and test sets using a 7:1:2 ratio. A ML pipeline consisting of a model to predict severity and time-to-event model to predict progression to critical illness were trained on radiomics features and clinical variables. The receiver operating characteristic area under the curve (ROC-AUC), concordance index (C-index), and time-dependent ROC-AUC were calculated to determine model performance, which was compared with consensus CT severity scores obtained by visual interpretation by radiologists. Results: Among 981 patients with confirmed COVID-19, 274 patients developed critical illness. Radiomics features and clinical variables resulted in the best performance for the prediction of disease severity with a highest test ROC-AUC of 0.76 compared with 0.70 (0.76 vs. 0.70, p = 0.023) for visual CT severity score and clinical variables. The progression prediction model achieved a test C-index of 0.868 when it was based on the combination of CT radiomics and clinical variables compared with 0.767 when based on CT radiomics features alone (p < 0.001), 0.847 when based on clinical variables alone (p = 0.110), and 0.860 when based on the combination of visual CT severity scores and clinical variables (p = 0.549). Furthermore, the model based on the combination of CT radiomics and clinical variables achieved time-dependent ROC-AUCs of 0.897, 0.933, and 0.927 for the prediction of progression risks at 3, 5 and 7 days, respectively. Conclusion CT radiomics features combined with clinical variables were predictive of COVID-19 severity and progression to critical illness with fairly high accuracy.

Objective: To develop a machine learning (ML) pipeline based on radiomics to predict Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) severity and the future deterioration to critical illness using CT and clinical variables. Materials and Methods: Clinical data were collected from 981 patients from a multi-institutional international cohort with real-time polymerase chain reaction-confirmed COVID-19. Radiomics features were extracted from chest CT of the patients. The data of the cohort were randomly divided into training, validation, and test sets using a 7:1:2 ratio. A ML pipeline consisting of a model to predict severity and time-to-event model to predict progression to critical illness were trained on radiomics features and clinical variables. The receiver operating characteristic area under the curve (ROC-AUC), concordance index (C-index), and time-dependent ROC-AUC were calculated to determine model performance, which was compared with consensus CT severity scores obtained by visual interpretation by radiologists. Results: Among 981 patients with confirmed COVID-19, 274 patients developed critical illness. Radiomics features and clinical variables resulted in the best performance for the prediction of disease severity with a highest test ROC-AUC of 0.76 compared with 0.70 (0.76 vs. 0.70, p = 0.023) for visual CT severity score and clinical variables. The progression prediction model achieved a test C-index of 0.868 when it was based on the combination of CT radiomics and clinical variables compared with 0.767 when based on CT radiomics features alone (p < 0.001), 0.847 when based on clinical variables alone (p = 0.110), and 0.860 when based on the combination of visual CT severity scores and clinical variables (p = 0.549). Furthermore, the model based on the combination of CT radiomics and clinical variables achieved time-dependent ROC-AUCs of 0.897, 0.933, and 0.927 for the prediction of progression risks at 3, 5 and 7 days, respectively. Conclusion CT radiomics features combined with clinical variables were predictive of COVID-19 severity and progression to critical illness with fairly high accuracy.

Background and Objectives: Two of the authors, one heterosexual and one homosexual, both voluntarily donated blood to a well-known health institution in the Philippines. As they were filling out the paperwork, one of the authors' attention was called by one of the questions in the form: “Nakipagtalik ka na ba sa iyong kauri?,” which can be literally translated as “Have you had sex with your own kind?”. This erroneously phrased question was the sole question interrogated and problematized in the study. Methodology: Reviews of Standpoint Theory and the methodology associated with it and, in effect, used in the study, formed part of the critique, divided into individual narrations and interpretations by each author. A third co-author, a hematologist, lent her insight on the logistics and issues of phlebotomy. Institutional ethnography was brought to bear on the narratives Results and Conclusion This three-author collaboration is presented as a claim that an interdisciplinary approach may open new vistas to a phenomenon that has long existed but been ignored. Reviews of Standpoint Theory and curriculum planning for health professionals are recommended.
Phlebotomy ; Communication ; Homosexuality ; Blood Donation