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Background The gut associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) is an important part of the immune system and compromised in HIV treatment-naïve as well as in HIV-seropositive patients on antiretroviral treatment (ART) due to HIV-induced changes. The influence of the impaired GALT on the postoperative complication rate after surgery for penetrating abdominal trauma has not been investigated and the hypothesis that the HIV-induced changes of the GALT contribute to septic complications postoperatively was tested. Material and methods This prospective study included patients who required a small bowel resection due to abdominal gunshot wounds. A bowel specimen was obtained in the index operation, and the T-lymphocytic quantity in the specimen was analyzed via immunohistochemistry to scrutinize whether these lymphocyte numbers had an impact on the postoperative outcome. Septic and postoperative complications were documented during the in-hospital course and the first month after discharge. Results In total, 62 patients were included in the study of which 38 patients were HIV-seronegative and 24 were HIV-seropositive. HIV-seropositive patients had a significantly lower quantity of CD4 + T cells in the GALT compared to the HIV-seronegative patients (p = 0.0001), which was also associated with a significantly higher rate of septic complications in the postoperative course. In the HIV-seropositive group, no significant differences were detected for T-lymphocytic quantity in the GALT between the HIV-treatment naïve and antiretroviral treatment groups. Conclusion The compromised GALT in HIV-seropositive patients may predispose these patients to postoperative septic complications. Antiretroviral therapy does not result in an adequate immune reconstitution in this tissue.

Introduction Trauma is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide with exsanguination being the primary preventable cause through early surgical intervention. We assessed two popular trauma scoring systems, injury severity scores (ISS) and shock index (SI) to determine the optimal cut off values that may predict the need for emergent surgical intervention (ESI) and in-hospital mortality. Methods A retrospective analysis of patient records from a tertiary hospital's trauma unit for the year 2019 was done. Descriptive statistics, univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was conducted and area under the curve (AUC) reported for predicting the need for ESI in all study participants, as well as in patients with penetrating injuries alone, based on continuous variables of ISS, SI or a combination of ISS and SI. The Youdin Index was applied to determine the optimal ISS and SI cut off values. Results A total of 1964 patients’ records were included, 89.0% were male and the median age (IQR) was 30 (26–37) years. Penetrating injuries accounted for 65.9% of all injuries. ISS and SI were higher in the ESI group with median (IQR) 11 (10–17) and 0.74 (0.60–0.95), respectively. The overall mortality rate was 4.5%. The optimal cut-off values for ESI and mortality by ISS (AUC) were 9 (0.74) and 12 (0.86) (p = 0.0001), with optimal values for SI (AUC) being 0.72 (0.60), and 0.91 (0.68) (p = 0.0001), respectively. Conclusion ISS and SI are significant, independent prognosticators for the need of ESI and in-hospital mortality., Highlights • The ISS cut-off of 15 for severe trauma may underestimate the severity of trauma within our local South African population. • Our study reports an optimal SI cut off value of ≥0.72 for emergency surgical intervention. • At an optimal SI cut off of ≥0.91 for in-hospital mortality, the odds of demise were 6.7 times higher. • ISS was a stronger predictor than SI of both ESI and in-hospital mortality in our study.

Background. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in many low- and middle-income countries, and often presents at an advanced stage that affects prognosis irrespective of the care available. Although patient-related delay is commonly cited, the reasons for delay and the relationship of delay to stage are still poorly documented, especially in Africa.Objectives. To identify where patient-related socioeconomic delays occur and how these relate to stage at presentation.Methods. Consecutive women with a new breast cancer diagnosis were prospectively invited to complete a questionnaire on their socioeconomic characteristics and ability to access care. Clinical stage at presentation was documented.Results. Over 14 months, 252 women completed the questionnaire (response rate 71.6%). Their median age was 55 years (interquartile range 44 - 65), with 26.5% aged

Background Humanitarian medical organizations provide surgical care for a broad range of conditions including general surgical (GS), obstetric and gynecologic (OBGYN), orthopedic (ORTHO), and urologic (URO) conditions in unstable contexts. The most common humanitarian operation is cesarean section. The objective of this study was to identify the proportion of South African general surgeons who had operative experience and current competency in GS, OBGYN, ORTHO, and URO humanitarian operations in order to evaluate their potential for working in humanitarian disasters. Methods This was a cross-sectional online survey of South African general surgeons administered from November 2017–July 2018. Rotations in OBGYN, ORTHO, and URO were quantified. Experience and competency in eighteen humanitarian operations were queried. Results There were 154 SA general surgeon participants. Prior to starting general surgery (GS) residency, 129 (83%) had OBGYN, 125 (81%) ORTHO, and 84 (54%) URO experience. Experience and competency in humanitarian procedures by specialty included: 96% experience and 95% competency for GS, 71% experience and 51% com- petency for OBGYN, 77% experience and 66% competency for ORTHO, and 86% experience and 81% competency for URO. 82% reported training, and 51% competency in cesarean section. Conclusions SA general surgeons are potentially well suited for humanitarian surgery. This study has shown that most SA general surgeons received training in OBGYN, ORTHO, and URO prior to residency and many maintain competence in the corresponding humanitarian operations. Other low- to middle-income countries may also have broad-based surgery training, and the potential for their surgeons to offer humanitarian assistance should be further investigated.

BackgroundEarly diagnosis of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is challenged by the absence of accurate early diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. CA19-9 is the established, diagnostic tumour marker in PDAC, despite its limitations. Effective primary screening using circulating biomarker panels have only been considered in a handful of studies and we investigated whether combinations of inflammatory cytokines and angiogenic factors in multivariate logistic models could facilitate earlier diagnosis in our South African setting.MethodsPlasma levels of 38 cytokines and angiogenic factors were measured in 131 Black South African patients, 85 with PDAC, 25 with benign biliary pathology (BBP) and 21 benign non-HPB controls (BC), by use of human magnetic multiplex screening assays. Multivariate biomarker panels were developed by identifying the top performing biomolecules from univariate logistic regression. Receiver-operator characteristic (ROC) curves and area under the ROC curve (AUC) are reported.ResultsClassification modelling to distinguish PDAC patients from BC showed that a panel of CA19-9 and CXCL10 (IP-10) demonstrated improved diagnostic power over CA19-9 alone (AUC = 0.977 vs. AUC = 0.807, p-value = 0.001). A combined panel including age, BMI and IL-15 showed significant diagnostic power in discriminating PDAC from BBP (AUC = 0.952, p < 0.0001). Finally, a combined panel of IL-8, IL-15 and gender demonstrated diagnostic accuracy (AUC = 0.830, p < 0.0001) in distinguishing PDAC in the presence of jaundice from benign controls with either jaundice, choledocholithiasis or common bile duct injury.ConclusionsCombined biomarker panels improve diagnostic accuracy in PDAC. In addition to CA19-9, cytokines CXCL10, IL-8 and IL-15 are strong additions to diagnostic biomarker panels in PDAC in Black South Africans.

Introduction: Surgical systems are integral to successful, safe and cost effective clinical practice and must balance surgical demands on consumable items and their costs. Suture material is a key consumable resource, and was evaluated in an audit of consumable use and cost as well as the procurement systems within the South African Gauteng public health care sector.Aims: To determine suture use and cost in the four commonest general surgical procedures – abdominal wall closure, mastectomy, appendicectomy and inguinal hernia repair – in three academic Gauteng hospitals. Performance and availability were evaluated as a secondary aim in suture material use. Methods: A prospective observational study. Suture use was documented by the surgeon at the time of the procedure and qualitative investigation at relevant hospital departments determined suture material procurement and expenditure.Results: The surgeons in three facilities documented consistent material type and average number of units used; however, in some cases there was a lack of availability of appropriate material and breakage of generic material intraoperatively. There is no consistent and consolidated electronic record-keeping of suture stock and cost in all three hospitals, therefore cost of suture material used was not obtainable.Conclusion: Clinical deficiencies in availability and quality of material may have adverse implications for patient health, healthcare costs and budgets through procedure-related complications and should be investigated. There is a lack of communication between the financial management, procurement officers, hospital and theatre stores and theatre staff. It is suggested that clinical protocols and system-based strategies be put in place to manage surgical consumables.

In a systematic review, the authors explored genetic association studies of essential hypertension in African populations. Studies reporting on the association of polymorphism(s) with hypertension in African populations were included. Appropriate studies were pooled using random effects model meta-analysis, under six potential inheritance models. In all, 46 polymorphisms in 33 genes were investigated for their association with hypertension or blood pressure levels. Meta-analysis was possible for three single nucleotide polymorphisms: rs4340, rs699, and rs5186. An association was found between rs5186, rs699, and hypertension under allele contrast and homozygous codominant models (odds ratio, 1.63 [95% confidence interval, 1.04–2.54] and 4.01 [95% confidence interval, 1.17–13.80] for rs5186, respectively; and 1.80 [95% confidence interval, 1.13–2.87] for rs699). Findings were mostly robust in sensitivity analyses. According to the systematic review, there is currently insufficient evidence on the specific polymorphisms that pose the risk of hypertension in African populations. Large-scale genetic studies are warranted to better understand susceptibility polymorphisms that may be specific to African populations.

Diabetes is a significant major risk factor for peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and critical limb ischaemia (CLI), the latter which is also the most common cause of amputation in these patients. Revascularisation of the lower extremities of such patients is imperative for limb salvage and has become First-line therapy. However, the incidence of restenosis following endovascular stenting is very high and is largely due to neo-intimal hyperplasia (NIH), the regulation of which is for the greater part not understood. This article therefore reviews our understanding on the regulation of NIH following stent-induced vascular injury, and highlights the importance of future studies to investigate whether the profile of vascular progenitor cell differentiation, neo-intimal growth factors and lumen diameters predict the severity of post-stent NIH in the peripheral arteries. Results from future studies will (1) better our understanding of the regulation of NIH in general, (2) determine whether combinations of any of the vascular factors discussed are predictive of the extent of NIH postoperatively, and (3) potentially facilitate future therapeutic targets and/or change preventive strategies.

Objectives A systematic review of the role of cytokines in clinical medicine as diagnostic, prognostic, or predictive biomarkers in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma was undertaken. Materials and Methods A systematic review was conducted according to the 2009 PRISMA guidelines. PubMed database was searched for all original articles on the topic of interest published until June 2015, and this was supplemented with references cited in relevant articles. Studies were evaluated for risk of bias using the Quality in Prognosis Studies tools. Results Forty one cytokines were investigated with relation to pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) in 65 studies, ten of which were analyzed by more than three studies. Six cytokines (interleukin[IL]-1β, -6, -8, -10, vascular endothelial growth factor, and transforming growth factor) were consistently reported to be increased in PDAC by more than four studies; irrespective of sample type; method of measurement; or statistical analysis model used. When evaluated as part of distinct panels that included CA19-9, IL-1β, -6 and -8 improved the performance of CA19-9 alone in differentiating PDAC from healthy controls. For example, a panel comprising IL-1β, IL-8, and CA 19–9 had a sensitivity of 94.1% vs 85.9%, specificity of 100% vs 96.3%, and area under the curve of 0.984 vs 0.925. The above-mentioned cytokines were associated with the severity of PDAC. IL-2, -6, -10, VEGF, and TGF levels were reported to be altered after patients received therapy or surgery. However, studies did not show any evidence of their ability to predict treatment response. Conclusion Our review demonstrates that there is insufficient evidence to support the role of individual cytokines as diagnostic, predictive or prognostic biomarkers for PDAC. However, emerging evidence indicates that a panel of cytokines may be a better tool for discriminating PDAC from other non-malignant pancreatic diseases or healthy individuals.

Central aortic blood pressure (BP; BPc) predicts outcomes beyond brachial BP. In this regard, the application of a generalized transfer function (GTF) to radial pulse waves for the derivation of BPc is an easy and reproducible measurement technique. However, the use of the GTF may not be appropriate in all circumstances. Although the peak of the second shoulder of the radial waveform (P2) is closely associated with BPc, and, hence, BPc may be assessed without the need for a GTF, whether P2-derived BPc is associated with adverse cardiovascular changes independent of brachial BP is uncertain. Thus, P2- and GTF-derived aortic BPs were assessed using applanation tonometry and SphygmoCor software. Left ventricular mass was indexed for height 1.7 (n=678) and carotid intima-media thickness (IMT; n=462) was determined using echocardiography and vascular ultrasound. With adjustments for nurse-derived brachial pulse pressure (PP), P2-derived central PP was independently associated with left ventricular mass indexed for height 1.7 (partial r =0.18; P r =0.40; P 1.7 : partial r =0.17, P r =0.37, P r =−0.21 to 0.05). Twenty-four–hour, day, and night PP-target organ relations did not survive adjustments for nurse-derived brachial BP. In conclusion, central PP derived from P2, which does not require a GTF, is associated with cardiovascular target organ changes independent of brachial BP. Thus, when assessing adverse cardiovascular effects of aortic BP independent of brachial BP, P2-derived measures may complement GTF-derived measures of aortic BP.

Diabetes is a significant major risk factor for peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and critical limb ischaemia (CLI), the latter which is also the most common cause of amputation in these patients. Revascularisation of the lower extremities of such patients is imperative for limb salvage and has become first-line therapy. However, the incidence of restenosis following endovascular stenting is very high and is largely due to neo-intimal hyperplasia (NIH), the regulation of which is for the greater part not understood. This article therefore reviews our understanding on the regulation of NIH following stent-induced vascular injury, and highlights the importance of future studies to investigate whether the profile of vascular progenitor cell differentiation, neo-intimal growth factors and lumen diameters predict the severity of post-stent NIH in the peripheral arteries. Results from future studies will (1) better our understanding of the regulation of NIH in general, (2) determine whether combinations of any of the vascular factors discussed are predictive of the extent of NIH postoperatively, and (3) potentially facilitate future therapeutic targets and/or change preventive strategies.

Background. Preoperative, intraoperative and follow-up guidelines for managing occult carcinoma in reduction mammoplasty specimens are scant. Methods. We retrospectively analysed the records and pathology reports of 200 patients who had undergone reduction mammoplasty at two major public hospitals in Johannesburg, South Africa, during 2009 - 2014. Demographic data, their history of breast cancer and preoperative screening, the surgical techniques used and pathological reports were included. In all cases preoperative screening for breast cancer had been negative. Results. All the patients were female, mean age 37.1 years, range 20 - 84 (standard deviation 11.9). All reductions were performed using standard techniques. Benign pathology was observed in 98 patients (49%) and malignant pathology in four (2%). The most common benign pathology observed was fibrocystic disease, and the most common malignant pathology ductal carcinoma in situ . Patient age correlated significantly with benign or malignant disease. Conclusions. Reduction mammoplasty produces tissue that should always be sent for pathological assessment. Patients should be stratified by risk, as doing so helps in selecting both the surgical setting and the approach to pathological analysis of the specimen. While the incidence of occult carcinoma in reduction mammoplasty specimens is low, all patients undergoing the procedure should be informed that tissue will be sent for pathological examination, allowing them to prepare to receive possible news of breast cancer and be adequately equipped for subsequent decision-making.

Background. The logged experience of specialist general surgical trainees has made it possible to analyse their surgical procedural exposure. Objective. To evaluate the exposure to key surgical procedures of South African (SA) trainees in general surgery from logbooks submitted to the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa. Methods. Logbooks submitted and meeting the minimum requirements for the six final examinations for the fellowship of the College of Surgeons of the CMSA between August 2010 and March 2013 were selected. Consolidated surgical procedural experience was analysed according to procedural category, extent of supervision, procedure complexity and university at which the trainee performed the procedures. Results. The 95 logbooks entered into the study recorded 144 499 procedures, 60.6% of which were unsupervised, 18.5% supervised and 20.9% assisting another surgeon. Major and minor procedures made up 40.4% and 54.6%, respectively, with the remaining 5% categorised as ‘other’. A breakdown of procedural exposure per category, including the main contributing or key procedure for each category, is presented. Conclusion. Large numbers of procedures are logged by trainees during their surgical training. Inter-university and trainee key procedural exposure in SA differ to a small degree but are striking in some categories. Exposure to key procedures is insufficient in some categories. We are currently unable to assess the quality of training and quality of surgical skills from such logbooks. A standardised electronic logbook will facilitate future analyses of trainee procedural exposure, but other tools will be required to assess the quality of surgical skills training.

Background. Tumour size, grade and subtype are the main prognostic factors in adult patients presenting with soft-tissue sarcoma. Planning for appropriate management, including the need for additional staging investigations and neoadjuvant therapy, is dependent on reliable preoperative histopathological results. Objectives. To determine whether there is agreement between preoperative and post-excision histological findings in patients presenting with soft-tissue sarcoma, and whether the agreement is influenced by the subtypes of sarcomas. Patients and methods. Records of adult patients who had soft-tissue sarcomas excised were reviewed. Kaposi’s sarcoma and gastrointestinal stromal tumours were excluded. Data were retrieved from the Department of Anatomical Pathology of the National Health Laboratory Service and theatre records at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, and included patient demography, tumour sites and size, HIV status, biopsy types and post-excision histological findings. Results. Records of 153 patients were found (median age 44 years). The majority of the sarcomas were >5 cm in diameter, deep seated and localised in extremities. The commonest subtype, irrespective of HIV status, was dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans. Fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) results were inaccurate in determining the malignant nature, grade and subtype of sarcoma. Rates of accurate tumour subtype classification following core needle and incision biopsies when compared with post-excision histological findings were 73.1% and 78.3%, respectively. Conclusion. FNAB should not be used in the primary evaluation of soft-tissue tumours. A report of spindle cells on the FNAB smear should be followed by core needle or incision biopsy. Incision biopsy is superior to core needle biopsy in the classification of sarcomas by subtype.

Background Acute appendicitis is the most common surgical abdominal emergency. Delayed treatment increases the incidence of complications. The aim of this study was to investigate the presentation, incidence, and predictors of complications, and histological findings in adult patients with clinical diagnosis of acute appendicitis. Methods The study was a prospective observational study and included patients aged 12 years and older diagnosed with acute appendicitis. Data collected included demographic data, clinical presentation, duration of symptoms and reasons for presentation delay, diagnostic investigations, operative and histology findings, length of hospital stay, and mortality. Results A total of 146 patients were admitted with a mean age of 26 years (SD = 12 years). The male to female ratio was 1.6:1. Predominant presenting symptoms were right iliac fossa pain (95%), nausea (80%), and vomiting (73%), with 63% of patients presenting 2 days after onset of symptoms. Fever was present in 15% and only 31% of patients gave a typical history of acute appendicitis of vague peri-umbilical pain. The negative predictive values of white cell count and C-reactive protein for acute appendicitis were 28% and 50%, respectively. Sensitivity of the ultrasound to detect acute appendicitis was 60% with a negative predictive value of 31%; 30% of patients had complicated appendicitis. Histology results showed a normal appendix in 11% of patients. The 30-day mortality rate was 1.4%. Conclusions Patients with acute appendicitis rarely present with a typical history of vague peri-umbilical pain. The negative predictive values of both white cell count and ultrasound proved that neither of these measurements was accurate in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis. Most of our patients with complicated disease present late, with the most common reasons for this delay being lack of access to a medical clinics and prior treatment by general practitioners. Complications were higher in males and in those aged 45 years and above.