Objective: Unilateral biportal endoscopic transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (UBE-TLIF) has emerged as an alternative to open TLIF. However, limited evidence is available regarding the application of 3-dimensional (3D)-printed titanium cages in UBE-TLIF. We aimed to compare the clinical outcomes and fusion rates of UBE-TLIF and open TLIF using 3D-printed titanium cages. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed patients who underwent single-level TLIF with 3D-printed titanium cages between 2021 and 2023. The inclusion criterion was degenerative lumbar stenosis, while the exclusion criteria were trauma, infection, and multilevel surgery. Clinical and radiologic outcomes were compared between the UBE-TLIF and open TLIF groups. Results: Twenty-one patients underwent UBE-TLIF, and 21 underwent open TLIF. The visual analogue scale (VAS) for back (p=0.987) and leg pain (p=0.731) did not significantly differ between the groups at 1-year follow-up. However, VAS back pain at postoperative day 2 was significantly lower in the UBE-TLIF group than in the open TLIF group (p<0.001). Solid fusion was achieved in 21 patients (100%) in the open TLIF group and in 20 (95.2%) in the UBE-TLIF group (p=1.000). In multivariable logistic regression analysis, body mass index was the only factor that exhibited a significant relationship (odds ratio [OR], 0.70; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.53–0.92; p=0.011) with interbody fusion. In contrast, the surgical method (UBE vs. open TLIF) was not a significant factor (OR, 0.47; 95% CI, 0.10–2.21; p=0.337). Conclusion Using a 3D-printed titanium cage for UBE-TLIF may yield comparable fusion rates to those of open TLIF.

Background/Aims: The benefits of adjuvant therapy after curative resection (CR) have been demonstrated for bile duct cancer with lymph node (LN) metastasis. However, the putative benefits of adjuvant treatment for bile duct cancer without LN metastasis remain controversial.We aimed to identify recurrence risk factors for distal bile duct cancer (DBC) without LN metastasis following CR and high-risk groups that may benefit from adjuvant treatment. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed recurrence-related factors of patients who underwent surgical resection for DBC at Yonsei University Severance Hospital from January 2010 to June 2019. Results: Of 380 DBC cases receiving CR, 248 (62.8%) were pathologically confirmed as free from LN metastasis. The recurrence rates of all cases and LN metastasis-free cases were similar at 52.4% and 46.8%, respectively. Further, distant metastasis and local recurrence were about equally frequent. Involvement of adjacent organs, the presence of an R1 resection margin (cancer cells present microscopically), lymphovascular invasion (LVI), and perineural invasion (PNI) were identified as risk factors for recurrence (R1 margin OR: 1.642, 95% CI: 1.045–2.578, p = 0.031; LVI OR: 2.049, 95% CI: 1.347–3.115, p = 0.001; PNI OR: 1.901, 95% CI: 1.170–3.088, p = 0.009). Overall survival was also significantly reduced in patients with R1 resection margins (p = 0.018), LVI (p < 0.001), or PNI (p = 0.002). Conclusions The overall risk of LN-negative DBC recurrence remains high after CR. Aggressive systemic adjuvant treatment and active surveillance are required for patients with R1 resection margins, LVI, or PNI.

Purpose: Cannulation of the major papilla is the most challenging part of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) for which physician-controlled wire-guided cannulation (PCWGC) and assistant-controlled wire-guided cannulation (ACWGC) are used as the cannulation techniques. PCWGC can reportedly save up to about 30% of the labor cost by reducing the number of assistants. This study aims to compare the safety and efficacy of PCWGC and ACWGC. Materials and Methods: Of the 2151 patients aged >20 years (4193 cases) who underwent ERCP at Yonsei University Medical Center between January 2015 and December 2016, 989 were included in this study. Results: Among efficacy outcomes, cannulation success rate, rate of precut sphincterotomy (PCWGC vs. ACWGC: 21.3% vs.25.9%), bile duct cannulation time (PCWGC vs. ACWGC: median 3.0 minutes vs. 3.6 minutes), and total procedure time (PCWGC vs. ACWGC: median 13.6 minutes vs. 13.1 minutes) were not significantly different. Among safety outcomes, lower rates of postERCP pancreatitis were observed with PCWGC than with ACWGC (PCWGC vs. ACWGC: 5.8% vs. 8.8%, p=0.128). Among other post-ERCP adverse events (bleeding, perforation, and cholangitis), the difference was not significant between the groups. Radiation exposure (total dose area product, PCWGC vs. ACWGC: median 1979.9 µGym2 vs. 2062.0 µGym2 , p=0.194) and ERCP cost excluding labor cost (PCWGC vs. ACWGC: $1576 vs. $1547, p=0.606) were not significantly different. Conclusion Requiring less assistants, PCWGC showed comparable efficacy and safety to ACWGC. PCWGC can be considered as an alternative option, especially in facilities lacking manpower and resources.

There are limited data on outcomes after implantation of everolimus-eluting stents (EES) in East Asian patients with small vessel coronary lesions. A total of 1,600 patients treated with XIENCE EES (Abbott Vascular, CA, USA) were divided into the small vessel group treated with one ≤2.5 mm stent (n=119) and the non-small vessel group treated with one ≥2.75 mm stent (n=933). The primary end point was a patient-oriented composite outcome (POCO), a composite of all-cause death, myocardial infarction (MI), and any repeat revascularization at 12 months. The key secondary end point was a device-oriented composite outcome (DOCO), a composite of cardiovascular death, target-vessel MI, and target lesion revascularization at 12 months. The small vessel group was more often female, hypertensive, less likely to present with ST-elevation MI, and more often treated for the left circumflex artery, whereas the non-small vessel group more often had type B2/C lesions, underwent intravascular ultrasound, and received unfractionated heparin. In the propensity matched cohort, the mean stent diameter was 2.5±0.0 mm and 3.1±0.4 mm in the small and non-small vessel groups, respectively. Propensity-adjusted POCO at 12 months was 6.0% in the small vessel group and 4.3% in the non-small vessel group (p=0.558). There was no significant difference in DOCO at 12 months (small vessel group: 4.3% and non-small vessel group: 1.7%, p=0.270).Outcomes of XIENCE EES for small vessel disease were comparable to those for non-small vessel disease at 12-month clinical follow-up in real-world Korean patients.

Purpose: Hypoxaemia is a significant adverse event during endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) under monitored anaesthesia care (MAC); however, no model has been developed to predict hypoxaemia. We aimed to develop and compare logistic regression (LR) and machine learning (ML) models to predict hypoxaemia during ERCP under MAC. Materials and Methods: We collected patient data from our institutional ERCP database. The study population was randomly divided into training and test sets (7:3). Models were fit to training data and evaluated on unseen test data. The training set was further split into k-fold (k=5) for tuning hyperparameters, such as feature selection and early stopping. Models were trained over k loops; the i-th fold was set aside as a validation set in the i-th loop. Model performance was measured using area under the curve (AUC). Results: We identified 6114 cases of ERCP under MAC, with a total hypoxaemia rate of 5.9%. The LR model was established by combining eight variables and had a test AUC of 0.693. The ML and LR models were evaluated on 30 independent data splits. The average test AUC for LR was 0.7230, which improved to 0.7336 by adding eight more variables with an l 1 regularisation-based selection technique and ensembling the LRs and gradient boosting algorithm (GBM). The high-risk group was discriminated using the GBM ensemble model, with a sensitivity and specificity of 63.6% and 72.2%, respectively. Conclusion We established GBM ensemble model and LR model for risk prediction, which demonstrated good potential for preventing hypoxaemia during ERCP under MAC.

Background/Aims: Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression in tumor cells is associated with a poor biliary tract cancer (BTC) prognosis; tumor-infiltrating immune cells in the tumor microenvironment are associated with a better prognosis. The effect of PD-L1 expression on immune cells on survival is unclear. We investigated the relationship between PD-L1 expression in immune cells and BTC prognosis. Methods: PD-L1 expression was evaluated using an anti-PD-L1 22C3 mouse monoclonal primary antibody, and its relationships with clinical characteristics and prognosis were analyzed using the Cox proportional hazard model to investigate the prognostic performance of PD-L1 in BTC. Results: Among 144 analyzed cases, patients with positive PD-L1 expression in tumor cells and negative PD-L1 expression in immune cells showed poorer overall survival rates than those exhibiting other expressions (tumor cells: hazard ratio [HR]=1.023, p<0.001; immune cells: HR=0.983, p=0.021). PD-L1 expression in tumor cells was an independent predictor of poor overall survival (HR=1.024, p<0.001). In contrast, PD-L1 expression in immune cells was a predictive marker of good prognosis (HR=0.983, p=0.018). Conclusions PD-L1 expression in immune cells may be used as an independent factor to evaluate the prognosis of patients with BTC.

Background/Aims: Controversy regarding the effectiveness of neoadjuvant therapy for resectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) still exists. Here, we aimed to identify the potential benefits of neoadjuvant therapy followed by surgery for resectable PDAC. Methods: We reviewed radiologically resectable PDAC patients who received resection with curative intent at a tertiary hospital in South Korea between January 2012 and August 2019. A total of 202 patients underwent curative resection for resectable PDAC: 167 underwent surgical resection first during this period, and 35 received neoadjuvant chemotherapy/chemoradiation therapy followed by surgery. Resectable PDAC patients were subdivided, and 1:3 propensity score matching (PSM) was performed to reduce selection bias. Results: Compared with the group that received surgery first, the group that received neoadjuvant treatment followed by surgery had significantly smaller tumors (22.0 mm vs 27.0 mm, p=0.004), a smaller proportion of patients with postoperative pathologic T stage (p=0.026), a smaller proportion of patients with lymphovascular invasion (20.0% vs 40.7%, p=0.022), and a larger proportion of patients with negative resection margins (74.3% vs 51.5%, p=0.049). After PSM, the group that received neoadjuvant therapy had a significantly longer progression-free survival than those in the group that underwent surgery first (29.6 months vs 15.1 months, p=0.002). Overall survival was not significantly different between the two groups after PSM analysis. Conclusions We observed significantly better surgical outcomes and progression-free survival with the addition of neoadjuvant therapy to the management of resectable PDAC. However, despite PSM, there was still selection bias due to the use of different regimens between the groups receiving surgery first and neoadjuvant therapy. Large homogeneous samples are needed in the future prospective studies.

Background/Aims: Gallbladder cancer is fatal, but fluorescent imaging technology can facilitate timely diagnosis and improve patient outcomes. Fluorophore-conjugated insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R) targeted antibodies were used to visualize gallbladder cancer in orthotopic tumor mouse models. Methods: Western blotting, flow cytometric analysis, and confocal microscopy detected the expression of IGF-1R in SNU-308, SNU-478, and SNU-1196 bile duct cancer cells. In vivo imaging of SNU-478 and SNU-1196 subcutaneous tumors and orthotopic gallbladder tumor models of SNU-478 were performed after injection with DyLight 650-conjugated IGF-1R antibody. Results: Western blotting and flow cytometric analysis showed that IGF-1R was expressed in bile duct cancer cells, and confocal microscopy demonstrated that IGF-1R antibody was able to bind to IGF-1R on the cell membrane. Fluorescent IGF-1R antibody injected into the mouse tail vein made subcutaneous tumors and orthotopic tumors become fluorescent. The intensity of fluorescence from the tumor was stronger than that from surrounding normal tissues. Histochemical examination confirmed that the tumor was located inside the gallbladder and adjacent liver parenchyma of mice. Conclusions Our study showed that a fluorescent IGF-1R-targeted antibody could help detect gallbladder tumors. Tumor-specific imaging technology can be applied to endoscopy, laparoscopy, and robotic surgery for better management of gallbladder cancer.

Adult echinostomes having 37 collar spines collected from the intestine of Pitalah ducks in Aceh Province, Indonesia in 2018 were morphologically and molecularly determined to be Echinostoma miyagawai Ishii, 1932 (Digenea: Echinostomatidae). Among 20 ducks examined, 7 (35.0%) were found to be infected with this echinostome, and the number of flukes collected was 48 in total with average 6.9 (1-17) worms per duck. The adult flukes were 7.2 (6.1-8.5) mm in length and 1.2 (1.0-1.4) mm in width (pre-ovarian or testicular level) and characterized by having a head collar armed with 37 collar spines (dorsal spines arranged in 2 alternating rows), including 5 end group spines, and variable morphology of the testes, irregularly or deeply lobed (3-5 lobes) at times with horizontal extension. The eggs within the worm uterus were 93 (79-105) µm long and 62 (56-70) µm wide. These morphological features were consistent with both E. miyagawai and Echinostoma robustum, for which synonymy to each other has been raised. Sequencing of 2 mitochondrial genes, cox1 and nad1, revealed high homology with E. miyagawai (98.6-100% for cox1 and 99.0-99.8% for nad1) and also with E. robustum (99.3-99.8% for nad1) deposited in GenBank. We accepted the synonymy between the 2 species and diagnosed our flukes as E. miyagawai (syn. E. robustum) with redescription of its morphology. Further studies are required to determine the biological characteristics of E. miyagawai in Aceh Province, Indonesia, including the intermediate host and larval stage information.

In preparation for the surge of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), it is crucial to allocate medical resources efficiently for distinguishing people who remain asymptomatic until the end of the disease. Between January 27, 2020, and April 21, 2020, 517 COVID-19 cases from 13 healthcare facilities in Gyeonggi province, Korea, were identified out of which the epidemiologic and clinical information of 66 asymptomatic patients at the time of diagnosis were analyzed retrospectively. An exposure-diagnosis interval within 7 days and abnormal aspartate aminotransferase levels were identified as characteristic symptom development in asymptomatic COVID-19 patients. If asymptomatic patients without these characteristics at the time of diagnosis could be differentiated early, more medical resources could be secured for mild or moderate cases in this COVID-19 surge.