Search

Background: Centralization of subspeciality procedures in Australia is difficult due to a vast geographical span and in the appropriate patient group, surgery in regional centres should be considered. Our study reviews the safety of adrenalectomy performed at a low‐volume regional centre in regards to length of hospital admission, operative time, complication rate and conversion to open rate. Method: A retrospective cross‐sectional study was performed of consecutive patients undergoing laparoscopic or open adrenalectomy over a nine‐year period (2012–2021) at Dubbo Base Hospital, a regional hospital in Western New South Wales, Australia. These operations were all performed by a single Urologist. Results: Thirteen patients underwent adrenalectomy at our institution over the nine‐year period. The mean age was 51.7 years (SD10.1). There were seven women (53.8%) and six men (46.2%). Seven patients were considered low risk, four patients were medium risk and two patients were high risk as per the Charlson Comorbidity Index. All of our patients were overweight, with mean body mass index of 34.6 (SD 6.9). Mean operating time was 133.5 min (SD 36.3) and mean length of stay was 3.8 days (SD 2.2). There was one conversion to open (8.3%). Three patients (23.1%) had complications, of these complications, one was Clavien‐Dindo grade II, and one was Clavien‐Dindo grade IIIb. There were no mortalities. Conclusion: Our outcomes demonstrate that adrenalectomy in our low volume regional centre is safe with comparable outcomes of operative time, length of hospital stay and complication rate with other centres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: This review aimed to evaluate the quality of medicalinformation online for patients relating to vulvodynia. To our knowledge no evaluation of online patient information exists regarding vulvodynia and, at present, there is no standardized or validated method of evaluating medical information on the internet. Methods: A clearly defined protocol was developed to generate keywords relating to vulvodynia. The three most popular search engines worldwide; google.com, yahoo.com, and bing.com, were searched in September 2020. Three assessors evaluated eligible webpages for accuracy, credibility, readability, and reliability. Results: Forty‐five webpages were eligible with 38% given HON certification or Information Standard approval. Only one webpage achieved a DISCERN score of ≥63 indicating excellent reliability. No webpages scored a maximum 10 points for credibility. Eleven percent of webpages were rated "accurate" with score 17 or above. The modal Flesch Kincaid Grade Level was 9 with only 15.6% having a readability grade level of 8 or less. Conclusions: It has been shown in previous studies that patient information available online pertaining to gynecological conditions is frequently inaccurate, with limited regulation and low reliability, and our findings are in agreement with this. As patients increasingly look to the internet for medical information and education, we as clinicians, need to ensure the resources available are of a high standard and regulated. Without ensuring safe and effective healthcare resources, we risk misinformation which can negatively impact clinical care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]