Journal of the American College of Surgeons
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The 2011 ACGME regulations required substantial changes to the structure of general surgery residency programs, due primarily to the 16-hour in-house rule for PGY1 residents. However, the scope of changes that programs have undertaken to meet these requirements, and the educational impact of those changes, are poorly understood. ⋯ Most programs used a month-long night float (NF) rotation (14 of 20 [75%]). A minority of programs (5 of 20 [25%]) used a weekly rotating schedule, in which interns worked 5 to 6 nights in a month. Multiple programs (65%) had an NF in place before 2011; these programs made changes to and expanded their existing schedule to accommodate the new regulations. Commonly cited challenges to instituting NF included weekend coverage (60%) and providing adequate days off during day-to-night transition. Interns spent as much as 3 months of the year on NF. Only 5 programs made explicit changes to teaching schedules or developed a curriculum for residents on NF. Seventy-five percent of programs excused interns, explicitly or implicitly, from didactic teaching when on NF. Common themes noted by program directors included delayed maturation of trainees, interns being isolated from the team culture, and a conflict between the professional behaviors of "following the rules" and "doing what is right."
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Intestinal ischemia and reperfusion injury results in damage to elements critical to maintaining intestinal barrier function, including neurons and glia cells, which are part of the enteric nervous system (ENS). To limit inflammation, the ENS must be restored or replaced, yet the process by which this occurs is poorly understood. Multipotent progenitor cells called enteric nervous stem cells (ENSC) can differentiate into neurons or glia when stimulated. The ability of this cell population to respond to intestinal injury is unknown. In this study, we hypothesized that resolution of intestinal barrier injury would be associated with vagus nerve-mediated expansion of ENSCs. ⋯ Vagal-mediated expansion of ENSCs occurs after ischemia and reperfusion injury and results in improved kinetics of injury resolution.
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Multicenter Study
Is a Colectomy Always Just a Colectomy? Additional Procedures as a Proxy for Operative Complexity.
Studies of surgical outcomes can be confounded by operative complexity. Complexity is difficult to assess from claims data due to the absence of established measures, but information on additional procedures is typically available. We hypothesized that analyzing same-day procedures (SDPs) would provide a useful step toward including operative complexity in risk adjustment. ⋯ The risk of complications and mortality associated with colectomy was increased among patients with SDPs and the magnitude of the association was dependent on the type and quantity of additional procedures. Information on SDPs might reflect a component of operative risk not typically captured and should be considered as a candidate variable for risk adjustment when using claims to compare outcomes across large cohorts.