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Background/aim: Neoadjuvant chemoradiation (nCRT) in rectal cancer is associated with significant long-term morbidity. It is unclear whether nCRT in resectable mesorectal fascia circumferential resection margin (mrCRM)-negative rectal cancer treated by adequate total mesorectal excision (TME) is beneficial. The aim was to determine if nCRT can be omitted in patients with MRI-assessed cT3 rectal cancer and a negative mrCRM undergoing good-quality TME., Methods: By means of a prospective nationwide registry ( n = 43.147; prospective multi-center observational study), patients with cT3 rectal cancer <12 cm from the anal verge with a negative (>1 mm) MRI-assessed CRM undergoing radical resection from 2006 to 2008 were selected. Overall, 87 patients were available for the final analysis (TME-alone, n = 25; nCRT+TME, n = 62). Groups were balanced for age, sex, and ASA score, with a nonsignificant predominance of males in the nCRT+TME group. As main outcome measures, local and distant recurrence rates were compared between patients undergoing primary surgery (TME-alone) vs. neoadjuvant chemoradiation + surgery (nCRT+TME)., Results: In the TME-alone group, tumors were located closer to the anal verge ( p = 0.018) and demonstrated a smaller minimal circumferential distance from the resection margin ( p = 0.036). TME quality was comparable, as was median follow-up (48.9 vs. 44.9 months; p = 0.268). Local recurrences occurred at a similar rate in the TME-alone ( n = 1; 5.3%) and nCRT+TME groups ( n = 3; 5.5%) ( p = 0.994) and were diagnosed at 10 months (TME-alone) and at 8, 13, and 18 months (nCRT+TME). Distant recurrences occurred in 28.9 and 17.4% of the cases, respectively ( p = 0.626). The analysis was limited to cT3 cancers with a negative mrCRM. In addition, caution is required when appraising these results because of the limited number of evaluable subjects (especially in the TME-alone group), which adds some uncertainty to the statistical analysis., Conclusions: In this cohort of patients with rectal cancer located <12 cm from the anal verge and a negative mrCRM undergoing adequate TME, omission of nCRT had no impact onto the local recurrence rate., Competing Interests: H.P., B.G., F.M., and I.G. have no conflict of interests to declare., (Copyright © 2021 by S. Karger AG, Basel.)

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of obesity and underweight onto early postoperative and long-term oncological outcome after surgery for rectal cancer., Methods: Data from 2008 until 2011 was gathered by a German prospective multicenter observational study. 62 items were reported by the physicians in charge, and a consecutive follow-up was performed if the patient had signed a consent form. Patients were subclassified into: underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese - using the definitions of the World Health Organization., Results: In total, 9,920 patients were included, of whom 2.1% were underweight and 19.4% obese. The mean age was 68 years (range 21-99 years). Postoperative morbidity (mean 38.0%) was significantly increased in underweight and obese patients (p < 0.001). In-hospital mortality was 3.1% on average with no significant differences among patient groups (p = 0.176). The 5-year overall survival ranged between 36.9 and 61.3% and was worse in underweight and prolonged in overweight and obese patients compared to those with normal weight (p < 0.001 each). While the 5-year disease-free survival was increased in overweight and obese patients (p < 0.05 each), the 5-year local recurrence rate showed no correlation (p > 0.05 each). Multivariate analysis revealed that advanced age, higher ASA scoring, postoperative morbidity, and advanced tumor growth worsened the long-term survival independently., Conclusions: Underweight patients had a worse early and long-term outcome after rectal cancer surgery. Overweight and obesity were associated with a significantly better long-term survival.

Aims: Adjuvant chemotherapy for resected rectal cancer is widely used. However, studies on adjuvant treatment following neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT) and total mesorectal excision (TME) have yielded conflicting results. Recent studies have focused on adding oxaliplatin to both preoperative and postoperative therapy, making it difficult to assess the impact of adjuvant oxaliplatin alone. This study was aimed at determining the impact of (i) any adjuvant treatment and (ii) oxaliplatin-containing adjuvant treatment on disease-free survival in CRT-pretreated, R0-resected rectal cancer patients., Method: Patients undergoing R0 TME following 5-fluorouracil (5FU)-only-based CRT between January 1, 2008, and December 31, 2010, were selected from a nationwide registry. After propensity score matching (PSM), comparison of disease-free survival (DFS) using Kaplan-Meier analysis and log-rank test was performed in (i) patients receiving no vs. any adjuvant treatment and (ii) patients treated with adjuvant 5FU/capecitabine without vs. with oxaliplatin., Results: Out of 1497 patients, 520 matched pairs were generated for analysis of no vs. any adjuvant treatment. Mean DFS was significantly prolonged with adjuvant treatment (81.8 ± 2.06 vs. 70.1 ± 3.02 months, p < 0.001). One hundred forty-eight matched pairs were available for analysis of adjuvant therapy with or without oxaliplatin, showing no improvement in DFS in patients receiving oxaliplatin (76.9 ± 4.12 vs. 79.3 ± 4.44 months, p = 0.254). Local recurrence rate was not significantly different between groups in either analysis., Conclusion: In this cohort of rectal cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant CRT and TME surgery under routine conditions, adjuvant chemotherapy significantly improved DFS. No benefit was observed for the addition of oxaliplatin to adjuvant chemotherapy in this setting.

Unlabelled: Acute appendicitis, one of the most frequent emergencies in general surgery, has been repeatingly investigated with regard to specific aspects such as medical history, clinical symptoms, the perioperative management and follow up. The aim of the study was to investigate relevant and combined determinants for the perioperative management of acute appendicitis a systematic clinical prospective unicenter observational study was conducted. A representative patient cohort was studied (n=9,991; middle Europe) to reflect daily surgical practice through a time period of 27 years divided into 3 separate periods and the frequency of specific categories (e.g., characteristics of the medical history, clinical and intraoperative findings as well as complications), their correlation and relative risk factors for the disease as well as prognosis., Results: 1. The wound abscess rate was 10.9%. Perforation, surgical intervention in time, acute, gangrenous and chronic appendicitis, age, accompanying diseases such as obesity, arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus, sex, and missing pathological finding intraoperatively had a significant impact on the postoperative development of a wound abscess. 2. The longer the specific appendicitis-associated medical history was, the more frequent a perforated appendicitis occurred, greater the appendectomy (AE) rate in a non-inflamed appendix and higher the rate of required second interventions. 3. The average hospital stay was 11 days. 4. There was a significantly decreased percentage of patients with no pathological finding intraoperatively at the appendix vermiformis (p<0.001), who underwent AE, in particular, through the last investigation period from 1997 to 2000 onto only 6.8% (1974-1985, 15.5%; 1986-1996, 10.3%). 5. The mortality was 0.6%, with no significant difference comparing male and female patients (p=1), the three investigation periods (p=0.077), or the patients with AE in non-inflamed appendix (0.4%) and AE in acute appendicitis (0.6%; p=0.515). The study showed a positive, partially significant quality improvement within the presenting clinic with regard to a decreased rate of AE in non-inflamed appendix, wound abscess rate and, in particular, to mortality. Despite this, there is a trendy increase of the perforation rate in the investigated cohort., Conclusion: Quality control remains indispensable for the assessment of the disease´s surgical treatment. A further significant improval of this control might be achieved by multicenter studies and multifactorial evaluations.

Unlabelled: The aim of the study was to determine statistically significant factors with an impact on the early postoperative surgical outcome., Material and Methods: The influence of applied fast-track components on surgical results and early postoperative outcome in 143 consecutive Kausch-Whipple procedure patients was evaluated in a single-center retrospective analysis of a prospective collection of patient-associated pre-, peri- and postoperative data from 1997-2006., Results: The in-hospital mortality rate was 2.8% (n=4). Fast-track measures were shown to have no effect on the morbidity rate in the multi-variate analysis. Over the study period, a decrease of intraoperative infusion volume from 14.2 mL/kg body weight/h in the first year to 10.7 mL/kg body weight/h in the last year was accompanied by an increase in patients requiring intraoperative catecholamines, up from 17% to 95%. The administration of ropivacain/sufentanil via thoracic peri-dural catheter injection initiated in 2000 and now considered the leading analgesic method, was used in 95% of the cases in 2006. Early extubation rate rose from 16.6% to 57.9%., Conclusions: Fast-track aspects in the perioperative management have become more important in several surgical procedure even in those with a greater invasiveness such as Kausch-Whipple. However, such techniques used in peri-operative management of Kausch-Whipple pancreatic-head resections had no impact on the morbidity rate. In addition, the low in-hospital mortality rate was particularly attributed to surgical competence.