Duration of postoperative hyperlactatemia has predictive value in recurrent fistula after major definitive surgery for intestinal fistula

Purpose The present study aimed to identify the predictive value of duration of postoperative hyperlactatemia in screening patients at high risk of recurrent fistula after major definitive surgery (DS) for intestinal fistula. Methods If the initial postoperative lactate (IPL) > 2 mmol/L, DS was defined as major definitive surgery. The 315 enrolled patients with major DS were divided into group A (2 mmol/L < IPL ≤ 4 mmol/L), group B (mmol/L < IPL ≤ 6 mmol/L), and group C (IPL > 6 mmol/L). The characteristics of patients were collected, and the duration of postoperative hyperlactatemia was analyzed. According to the occurrence of recurrent fistula (RF), patients were further divided into RF group A, and Non-RF group A; RF group B, and Non-RF group B; and RF group C, and Non-RF group C. Results The duration of postoperative hyperlactatemia was comparable between the RF group A and the Non-RF group A [12 (IQR: 12–24) vs 24 (IQR: 12–24), p = 0.387]. However, the duration of hyperlactatemia was associated with RF in group B (adjusted OR = 1.061; 95% CI: 1.029–1.094; p < 0.001) and group C (adjusted OR = 1.059; 95% CI: 1.012–1.129; p = 0.017). In group B, the cutoff point of duration of 42 h had the optimal predictive value (area under ROC = 0.791, sensitivity = 0.717, specificity = 0.794, p < 0.001). In group C, the cutoff point of duration of 54 h had the optimal predictive value (area under ROC = 0.781, sensitivity = 0.730, specificity = 0.804, p < 0.001). Conclusion The duration of postoperative hyperlactatemia has a value in predicting RF in patients with an IPL of more than 4 mmol/L after major definitive surgery for intestinal fistula.

Duration of Postoperative Hyperlactatemia Has Predictive Value in Recurrent Fistula After Major Definitive Surgery for Intestinal Fistula

Purpose The present study aimed to identify the predictive value of duration of postoperative hyperlactatemia in screening patients at high risk of recurrent fistula after major definitive surgery(DS) for intestinal fistula. Methods If the initial postoperative lactate(IPL)> 2 mmol/L, DS was defined as major definitive surgery. The 315 enrolled patients with major DS were divided into group A (2 mmol/L<IPL≤ 4 mmol/L), group B (mmol/L<IPL≤ 6 mmol/L), and group C (IPL>6 mmol/L). The characteristics of patients were collected, and the duration of postoperative hyperlactatemia was analyzed. According to the occurrence of recurrent fistula (RF), patients were further divided into RF group A, and Non-RF group A; RF group B, and Non-RF group B; and RF group C, and Non-RF group C. Results The duration of postoperative hyperlactatemia was comparable between the RF group A and the Non-RF group A [12 (IQR:12-24) vs 24 (IQR:12-24), p=0.387]. However, the duration of hyperlactatemia was associated with RF in group B (adjusted OR= 1.061; 95%CI: 1.029-1.094; p<0.001) and group C (adjusted OR=1.059; 95%CI: 1.012-1.129; p=0.017). In group B, the cutoff point of duration of 42 hours had the optimal predictive value (area under ROC=0.791, sensitivity=0.717, specificity =0.794, p<0.001). In group C, the cutoff point of duration of 54 hours had the optimal predictive value (area under ROC=0.781, sensitivity=0.730, specificity =0.804, p<0.001). Conclusion The duration of postoperative hyperlactatemia has a value in predicting RF in patients with an IPL of more than 4 mmol/L after major definitive surgery for intestinal fistula.

Polypropylene suture as a seton in recurrent fistula-in-ano in lower socioeconomic class-a good option

Background: Recurrent anal fistulas after previous fistula surgery are a unique problem that typically necessitates more anal surgical experience to address the cause of recurrence. The present study was planned with the objective to determine the outcomes of the polypropylene suture as a seton placement for the treatment of recurrent anal fistula.Methods: Patients between the ages of 20-80 years with recurrent fistula-in-ano with single external opening and with history of previous surgery. Patients with preoperative incontinence, patients with difficult follow-up and who were not ready to participate in the study, patients with fistulas caused by inflammatory bowel disease, malignancy, tuberculosis, or trauma, patients with a horseshoe or multiple fistulas, patients with recurrent fistula-in-ano with multiple external opening, or recurrent fistula-in-ano with diseases like Crohn’s disease, tuberculosis, actinomycosis, malignancy, or high level fistula-in-ano without internal opening, and patients with synchronous anorectal problems such as haemorrhoids were excluded.Results: Post-operative pain was observed in all patients while discharge, bleeding and inflammation were observed in 27, 10 and 8 patients, respectively on day 0. Majority of post-operative symptoms were resolves in almost all patients except, pain and discharge were observed in 2 and 1 patients, respectively on day 7. At 6 months follow-up, incontinence of flatus was found out in 2 patients while no patient had incontinence of faeces.Conclusions: Polypropylene suture as a seton in recurrent fistula-in-ano, in previously operated patient is safe and most acceptable treatment. Ksharsutra is not easily available but polypropylene suture is easily available.

Esophageal Perforation and EVAC in Pediatric Patients: A Case Series of Four Children

Introduction: In pediatric patients, esophageal perforation (EP) is rare but associated with significant morbidity and mortality rates of up to 20–30%. In addition to standard treatment options, endoscopic esophageal vacuum-assisted closure (EVAC) therapy has shown promising results, especially in adult patients. Thus far, the only data on technical success and effectiveness of EVAC in pediatric patients were published in 2018 by Manfredi et al. at Boston Children's Hospital. The sparse data on EVAC in children indicates that this promising technique has been barely utilized in pediatric patients. More data are needed to evaluate efficacy and outcomes of this technique in pediatric patients.Method: We reviewed five cases of therapy using EVAC, ArgyleTM Replogle Suction Catheter (RSC), or both on pediatric patients with EP in our institution between October 2018 and April 2020.Results: Five patients with EP (median 3.4 years; 2 males) were treated with EVAC, RSC, or a combination. Complete closure of EP was not achieved after EVAC alone, though patients' health stabilized and inflammation and size of EP decreased after EVAC. Four patients then were treated with RSC until the EP healed. One patient needed surgery as the recurrent fistula did not heal sufficiently after 3 weeks of EVAC therapy. Two patients developed stenosis and were successfully treated with dilatations. One patient treated with RSC alone showed persistent EP after 5 weeks.Conclusion: EVAC in pediatric patients is technically feasible and a promising method to treat EP, regardless of the underlying cause. EVAC therapy can be terminated as soon as local inflammation and C-reactive protein levels decrease, even if the mucosa is not healed completely at that time. A promising subsequent treatment is RSC. An earlier switch to RSC can substantially reduce the need of anesthesia during subsequent treatments. Our findings indicate that EVAC is more effective than RSC alone. In some cases, EVAC can be used to improve the tissues condition in preparation for a re-do surgery. At 1 year after therapy, all but one patient demonstrated sufficient weight gain. Further prospective studies with a larger cohort are required to confirm our observations from this small case series.

Thoracoscopic oesophageal atresia/tracheo-oesophageal fistula (OA/TOF) repair is associated with a higher stricture rate: a single institution’s experience

Purpose Thoracoscopic OA/TOF repair was first described in 1999. Currently, less than 10% of surgeons routinely employ minimally access surgery. Our primary aim was to review our immediate-, early- and long-term outcomes with this technique compared with the open approach. Methods A retrospective review of all patients undergoing primary OA/TOF (Type C) repair at our institution from 2009 was conducted. Outcome measures included length of surgery, conversion rate from thoracoscopy, early complications such as anastomotic leak and post-operative complications such as anastomotic strictures needing dilatations. Fisher’s exact and Kruskal–Wallis tests were used for statistical analysis. Results 95 patients in total underwent OA/TOF repair during the study period of which 61 (64%) were completed via an open approach. 34 were attempted thoracoscopically of which 11 (33%) were converted. There was only one clinically significant anastomotic leak in our series that took place in the thoracoscopic group. We identified a significantly higher stricture rate in our thoracoscopic cohort (72%) versus open surgery (43%, P < 0.05). However, the median number of dilations (3) performed was not significantly different between the groups. There was one recurrent fistula in the thoracoscopic converted to open group. Our median follow-up was 60 months across the groups. Conclusion In our experience, the clinically significant leak rate for both open and thoracoscopic repair as well as recurrent fistula is much lower than has been reported in the literature. We do not routinely perform contrast studies and are, thus, reporting clinically significant leaks only. The use of post-operative neck flexion, ventilation and paralysis is likely to be protective towards a leak. Thoracoscopic OA/TOF repair is associated with a higher stricture rate compared with open surgery; however, these strictures respond to a similar number of dilatations and are no more refractory. Larger, multicentre studies may be useful to investigate these finding further.

Surgical management of vesicovaginal fistula repair: Our experience.

Objectives: The results of our study would generate useful baseline database which would help the surgeons to manage these fistulae and their related complications properly. Study Design: Non-randomized Clinical Control Trial study. Setting: Department of Urology, Bahawal Victoria Hospital, Bahawalpur and Shahida Islam Medical College, Lodhran. Period: From July 2015 to June 2016. Material & Methods: Total 150 women with vesico-vaginal fistula (VVF) on cystoscopy of either age were selected. Patients with history of recurrence of fistula, multiple fistulae, radiation and severe vaginal scarring were excluded. The transvaginal management was approached in cases of simple fistula, VVF located at trigone of bladder while transabdominal route was preferred when the fistula site could not be easily accessed per vagina, when VVF was above trigone or when the VVF was complex. These patients were followed for 6 weeks at 2 week time interval. Results: Age range in this study was from 20 to 60 years with mean age of 38.18 ± 10.64 years. Majority of patients were (41.72%) with medium sized fistula. In 92 patients, abdominal repair was done while in 52 patients vaginal repair was done. Unsuccessful repair was seen in 14 (9.33%), infection in 25 (16.67%) and recurrent fistula formation in 21 (14.0%) patients. Conclusion: This study concluded that the frequency of unsuccessful repair and recurrent fistula is more after vaginal repair compared to abdominal repair while infection rate was more after abdominal repair.

Ligation of the Intersphincteric Fistula Tract (LIFT) Technique in the Treatment of Complex Perianal Fistula: Experience of First 50 Cases

Perianal fistula is a common disease and surgery is the only treatment option. Many surgical techniques have been described. Ligation of intersphincteric fistula tract (LIFT) is a sphincter saving surgical technique in which fistula tract is ligated and excised through intersphincteric approach. The aim of study is to present our experience of first 50 LIFT procedures particularly healing rate, recurrence rate and complications from the procedure. This is a prospective observational study started from March 2018 on whom underwent LIFT procedure for primary complex perianal fistula of infective origin at Faridpur Central Hospital and Faridpur Medical College Hospital. In this study, 50 patients (42 male and 8 female) of average age of 39±7.6 years with complex fistula were included. The mean operative time was 34.7±5.67 minutes and most of the fistulas were transsphincteric variety (90%). Median wound healing time was 21.45±6.34 days for intersphincteric wound and 26.78±6.93 days for the external opening of the fistula. Mean follow up period was 10.5 months. Seven patients of our series developed recurrent fistula, making the overall success of 86%. None of the patient in our series developed incontinence. LIFT procedure has the advantage of preservation of anal sphincter, minimal tissue injury, shorter healing time, relatively easy to perform, and high success rate. It's a good choice for treatment of complex perianal fistula. Faridpur Med. Coll. J. Jan 2020;15(1): 3-7

Role of seton versus conventional techniques in the management of anorectal fistulas

Background: This study was conducted to compare the use of different setons with conventional management like fistulotomy and fistulectomy in terms of healing (after 1 and 3 months), recurrence and incontinence.Methods: This was a retrospective non-randomized study conducted at JNMCH, Aligarh from January 2018 to June 2019. Patients included- patients (males and females) of age group 18-70 years, patients giving consent. Patients excluded- fistula secondary to- Crohn’s disease, tuberculosis, malignancy, recurrent fistula, pregnant females, immuno-suppressed patients.Results: After 1 month, 17 out of 24 patients (70.8%) of fistulotomy, 48 out of 68 patients (70.6%) of seton group and 21 out of 32 patients (65.6%) of fistulectomy group had their wounds healed (p=0.8693). After 3 months, 19 out of 24 (79.2%) patients of fistulotomy, 61 out of 68 (89.7%) of seton, and 24 out of 32 patients (75%) with fistulectomy had their wound healed (p=0.1374). Recurrence was observed in 5 out of 24 patients of fistulotomy, 10 out of 68 patients of seton use and 5 out of 32 patients with fistulectomy (p=0.7788). 6 out of 24 patients (25%) had incontinence after fistulotomy, 7 out of 68 (10.3%) of seton group and 8 out of 24 (25%) after fistulectomy (p=0.0944). Healing was higher in patients of non-cutting setons as compared to cutting seton (p=0.0252). After 3 months, no difference was observed (p=0.1245). Recurrence higher in cutting setons as compared to non-cutting setons (p=0.0187).Conclusions: Setons are safe, low-cost, less invasive, precise, and cost-effective option for treating simple and complex fistula-in-ano.

The role of routine flexible sigmoidoscopy in patients presenting with fistula-in-ano: an observational study

Objective: Flexible sigmoidoscopy is useful to look for an underlying aetiology in fistula-in-ano. This study was aimed to assess the yield of routine flexible sigmoidoscopy in patients presenting with fistula-in-ano. A retrospective analysis of 159 consecutive patients with fistula-in-ano who underwent routine flexible sigmoidoscopy was performed. Sigmoidoscopy findings were recorded on a standard uniform format using a computer database. Those with a known aetiology were excluded. Results: The median age was 39(range:14-74) years and the majority were males(n=128,80.5%). Forty-nine patients(30.8%) presented with a recurrent fistula-in-ano. On flexible sigmoidoscopy, internal opening was seen in only 23 patients (14.4%). Furthermore, incidental findings of haemorrhoids (n=5, 3.1%) and polyps (n=7, 4.4%) were found. One patient(0.6%) had a healed anal fissure, 5 patients(3.1%) had inflamed mucosa and 2 patients(1.3%) had ulcers. Only two patients with inflamed mucosa were diagnosed to have Crohn’s disease on histology. Therefore, flexible sigmoidoscopy was not helpful in the majority to locate the internal opening. Only two patients had evidence of an underlying aetiology, which was Crohn’s disease. However, they had recurrent complex fistulae and other associated symptoms. Therefore, flexible sigmoidoscopy may be reserved for selected group of patients with symptoms of an underlying aetiology.

The role of routine flexible sigmoidoscopy in patients presenting with fistula-in-ano: an observational study

Objective: Flexible sigmoidoscopy is useful to look for an underlying aetiology in fistula-in-ano. This study was aimed to assess the yield of routine flexible sigmoidoscopy in patients presenting with fistula-in-ano. A retrospective analysis of 159 consecutive patients with fistula-in-ano who underwent routine flexible sigmoidoscopy was performed. Sigmoidoscopy findings were recorded on a standard uniform format using a computer database. Those with a known aetiology were excluded. Results: The median age was 39(range:14-74) years and the majority were males(n=128,80.5%). Forty-nine patients(30.8%) presented with a recurrent fistula-in-ano. On flexible sigmoidoscopy, internal opening was seen in only 23 patients (14.4%). Furthermore, incidental findings of haemorrhoids (n=5, 3.1%) and polyps (n=7, 4.4%) were found. One patient(0.6%) had a healed anal fissure, 5 patients(3.1%) had inflamed mucosa and 2 patients(1.3%) had ulcers. Only two patients with inflamed mucosa were diagnosed to have Crohn’s disease on histology. Therefore, flexible sigmoidoscopy was not helpful in the majority to locate the internal opening. Only two patients had evidence of an underlying aetiology, which was Crohn’s disease. However, they had recurrent complex fistulae and other associated symptoms. Therefore, flexible sigmoidoscopy may be reserved for selected group of patients with symptoms of an underlying aetiology.