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Surgeons successfully reattach testis after wrong-site surgery
NEW YORK (Reuters) – After doctors removed the wrong testis from a young man, the search was on for a surgeon who might be willing to try to replant it.
A new case report details the experience of a 25-year-old patient who had developed testicular pain and a palpable mass in his right testis; he went to a local hospital for a radical orchiectomy only to have the surgical team remove the left – wrong – testis.
Once the team recognized their error, they began searching for a center with microsurgical capacity to replant the testis.
“The take-home message is that microsurgery can be used to reattach an organ, in the case of a wrong-site surgery,” lead author Dr. Fatma Tuncer, a microsurgery fellow at the Cleveland Clinic, in Ohio, at the time of the surgery, told Reuters Health by email. She is now an assistant professor of plastic surgery at the University of Utah.
“The vast majority of surgeries, including urologic procedures will never have such an event, but there are helpful groups of physicians that are available to reduce the morbidity of such an event,” said coauthor Dr. Brian Gastman, a professor of surgery at the Case Western School of Medicine and a surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic.
“We were, I believe, the third one contacted, each one causing a greater time of ischemia,” Dr. Gastman told Reuters Health by email. “I accepted the patient and in doing so had the buy-in of my urology and anesthesia colleagues.”
Once Dr. Gastman and his team agreed to take on the task, the patient, and his testis, were flown to Cleveland. Once the patient arrived, he was counseled on the risks and benefits of the surgery. After agreeing to the surgery, the patient was taken to the OR immediately by the plastic surgery and urology teams.
Prior to initiating anesthesia, the testicle was examined and the urology team performed testicular sperm extraction as the patient did not have any biological children. The sperm were transported to a CLIA-certified andrology lab and were cryopreserved.
Next, the team examined the testis and spermatic cord under the microscope. The team identified the testicular artery, veins and vas deferens and marked them with prolene sutures. They next placed the testis in a moist gauze over ice until the recipient vessels were prepared.
After the team reconnected vessels, they observed strong arterial and venous Doppler flow on both testicular vessels and the testis itself. Five days after the replantation surgery, the team performed a radical orchiectomy on the correct side.
Dr. Gastman isn’t sure how well the testis will perform over time. “I cannot speak too much on this as it is ongoing,” he said. “But he will likely need some level of hormonal supplementation. I can state that the testis is alive and palpable.”
This is a “very interesting paper,” said Dr. Miroslav Djordjevic, a professor of urology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York. “Congratulations to colleagues for a great idea for solving this wrong-site surgery with very precise microsurgical technique and new insight in the fight to save the organs.”
Still, Dr. Djordjevic told Reuters Health by email, “postoperatively, the authors confirmed there was not complete testicular function based on testosterone levels and hypotrophy of the reimplanted testis. The main reason is the time between removal and reimplanation. Based on experiences with testicular torsion, four to six hours is the maximum that will offer restoration of volume and function. Here, a longer period (10 hours) resulted in poor outcomes.”
“Our experience with testicular implantation in monozygotic twins showed great success (Belgrade University, Serbia, December 2019, personal report) because the cold ischemia was only one hour,” Dr. Djordjevic said.
Reuters Health Information © 2022
NEW YORK (Reuters) – After doctors removed the wrong testis from a young man, the search was on for a surgeon who might be willing to try to replant it.
A new case report details the experience of a 25-year-old patient who had developed testicular pain and a palpable mass in his right testis; he went to a local hospital for a radical orchiectomy only to have the surgical team remove the left – wrong – testis.
Once the team recognized their error, they began searching for a center with microsurgical capacity to replant the testis.
“The take-home message is that microsurgery can be used to reattach an organ, in the case of a wrong-site surgery,” lead author Dr. Fatma Tuncer, a microsurgery fellow at the Cleveland Clinic, in Ohio, at the time of the surgery, told Reuters Health by email. She is now an assistant professor of plastic surgery at the University of Utah.
“The vast majority of surgeries, including urologic procedures will never have such an event, but there are helpful groups of physicians that are available to reduce the morbidity of such an event,” said coauthor Dr. Brian Gastman, a professor of surgery at the Case Western School of Medicine and a surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic.
“We were, I believe, the third one contacted, each one causing a greater time of ischemia,” Dr. Gastman told Reuters Health by email. “I accepted the patient and in doing so had the buy-in of my urology and anesthesia colleagues.”
Once Dr. Gastman and his team agreed to take on the task, the patient, and his testis, were flown to Cleveland. Once the patient arrived, he was counseled on the risks and benefits of the surgery. After agreeing to the surgery, the patient was taken to the OR immediately by the plastic surgery and urology teams.
Prior to initiating anesthesia, the testicle was examined and the urology team performed testicular sperm extraction as the patient did not have any biological children. The sperm were transported to a CLIA-certified andrology lab and were cryopreserved.
Next, the team examined the testis and spermatic cord under the microscope. The team identified the testicular artery, veins and vas deferens and marked them with prolene sutures. They next placed the testis in a moist gauze over ice until the recipient vessels were prepared.
After the team reconnected vessels, they observed strong arterial and venous Doppler flow on both testicular vessels and the testis itself. Five days after the replantation surgery, the team performed a radical orchiectomy on the correct side.
Dr. Gastman isn’t sure how well the testis will perform over time. “I cannot speak too much on this as it is ongoing,” he said. “But he will likely need some level of hormonal supplementation. I can state that the testis is alive and palpable.”
This is a “very interesting paper,” said Dr. Miroslav Djordjevic, a professor of urology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York. “Congratulations to colleagues for a great idea for solving this wrong-site surgery with very precise microsurgical technique and new insight in the fight to save the organs.”
Still, Dr. Djordjevic told Reuters Health by email, “postoperatively, the authors confirmed there was not complete testicular function based on testosterone levels and hypotrophy of the reimplanted testis. The main reason is the time between removal and reimplanation. Based on experiences with testicular torsion, four to six hours is the maximum that will offer restoration of volume and function. Here, a longer period (10 hours) resulted in poor outcomes.”
“Our experience with testicular implantation in monozygotic twins showed great success (Belgrade University, Serbia, December 2019, personal report) because the cold ischemia was only one hour,” Dr. Djordjevic said.
Reuters Health Information © 2022
NEW YORK (Reuters) – After doctors removed the wrong testis from a young man, the search was on for a surgeon who might be willing to try to replant it.
A new case report details the experience of a 25-year-old patient who had developed testicular pain and a palpable mass in his right testis; he went to a local hospital for a radical orchiectomy only to have the surgical team remove the left – wrong – testis.
Once the team recognized their error, they began searching for a center with microsurgical capacity to replant the testis.
“The take-home message is that microsurgery can be used to reattach an organ, in the case of a wrong-site surgery,” lead author Dr. Fatma Tuncer, a microsurgery fellow at the Cleveland Clinic, in Ohio, at the time of the surgery, told Reuters Health by email. She is now an assistant professor of plastic surgery at the University of Utah.
“The vast majority of surgeries, including urologic procedures will never have such an event, but there are helpful groups of physicians that are available to reduce the morbidity of such an event,” said coauthor Dr. Brian Gastman, a professor of surgery at the Case Western School of Medicine and a surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic.
“We were, I believe, the third one contacted, each one causing a greater time of ischemia,” Dr. Gastman told Reuters Health by email. “I accepted the patient and in doing so had the buy-in of my urology and anesthesia colleagues.”
Once Dr. Gastman and his team agreed to take on the task, the patient, and his testis, were flown to Cleveland. Once the patient arrived, he was counseled on the risks and benefits of the surgery. After agreeing to the surgery, the patient was taken to the OR immediately by the plastic surgery and urology teams.
Prior to initiating anesthesia, the testicle was examined and the urology team performed testicular sperm extraction as the patient did not have any biological children. The sperm were transported to a CLIA-certified andrology lab and were cryopreserved.
Next, the team examined the testis and spermatic cord under the microscope. The team identified the testicular artery, veins and vas deferens and marked them with prolene sutures. They next placed the testis in a moist gauze over ice until the recipient vessels were prepared.
After the team reconnected vessels, they observed strong arterial and venous Doppler flow on both testicular vessels and the testis itself. Five days after the replantation surgery, the team performed a radical orchiectomy on the correct side.
Dr. Gastman isn’t sure how well the testis will perform over time. “I cannot speak too much on this as it is ongoing,” he said. “But he will likely need some level of hormonal supplementation. I can state that the testis is alive and palpable.”
This is a “very interesting paper,” said Dr. Miroslav Djordjevic, a professor of urology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York. “Congratulations to colleagues for a great idea for solving this wrong-site surgery with very precise microsurgical technique and new insight in the fight to save the organs.”
Still, Dr. Djordjevic told Reuters Health by email, “postoperatively, the authors confirmed there was not complete testicular function based on testosterone levels and hypotrophy of the reimplanted testis. The main reason is the time between removal and reimplanation. Based on experiences with testicular torsion, four to six hours is the maximum that will offer restoration of volume and function. Here, a longer period (10 hours) resulted in poor outcomes.”
“Our experience with testicular implantation in monozygotic twins showed great success (Belgrade University, Serbia, December 2019, personal report) because the cold ischemia was only one hour,” Dr. Djordjevic said.
Reuters Health Information © 2022
Detransition, baby: Examining factors leading to ‘detransitioning’ and regret in the transgender community
Over the holiday season I had the pleasure of finally reading the national bestseller, Detransition, Baby. On the surface, the story depicts the complex relationships between Reese, a transgender woman who strongly desires a family, her ex-wife, Ames – a transgender woman who detransitioned to live as a cisgender man – and Ames’ cisgender female partner, who is unexpectedly pregnant with his child. The story delves much deeper than the relationships between these characters, as it exceptionally articulates many of the emotional intricacies of the transgender experience and addresses one of the most taboo topics in the transgender community – detransitioning and regret.
The terms “transition” and “detransition” have fallen out of favor in the vernacular of the transgender population as they incorrectly imply that gender identity is contingent upon gender-affirmation processes.1,2 More importantly, the terms “detransition” and regret are not synonymous. Conflating these terms has undermined the intrinsic nature of gender identity, which has resulted in political and legal consequences seeking to limit or outright ban care for transgender patients.
As a gender-affirming surgeon, one of the most common questions I get asked is the rate of regret patients have after their surgeries. While I have no issue answering the question when it is presented, I do not hesitate to point out some of the problematic subtext inherent in such inquiries. Within the line of questioning, many often comment, “It’s so permanent,” “I can’t believe people can do this to their bodies,” or “How sure are patients before undergoing these surgeries?” While these comments and queries can be downright offensive, they seem to stem from the difficulty people have comprehending gender dysphoria and the painstaking steps people take to affirm their identity. The implication of these comments also reveals a more deep-seated issue – general distrust of individual bodily autonomy, personal identity, and choice.
For the obstetrician-gynecologist, understanding the concept of autonomous, patient-centered decision-making should be second nature, as we face a similar line of interrogation when discussing abortion, contraception, and pregnancy. No other field faces this level of scrutiny when it comes to defending a patient’s bodily autonomy. For example, given the history of reproductive injustice with tubal ligation procedures, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has issued clear guidelines regarding counseling of women while acknowledging the tenuous history of these procedures with minority subgroups. According to their committee opinion, ethical counseling for such a permanent procedure involves understanding the content of information presented to the patient, how that information is conveyed, and self-reflection on the part of the provider.3 The approach to counseling and understanding gender-affirming care is no different.
I want to be clear that regret after gender-affirming surgery is rare, occurring in 0%-3.8% of patients.4-6 In a separate study, 91% of patients expressed significant improvement in quality of life after surgery.7 However, what is disheartening about patients who experience surgical regret is that it originates from continued difficulty from the transition process itself and ongoing discrimination – even though the patient’s physical characteristics match their gender identity.4-6 Similarly, in another survey which examined 17,151 participants who had pursued gender affirmation (broadly defined), approximately 2,242 (13.1%) reported a history of detransition.2 Among these adults, the vast majority (82.5%), cited external factors such as school harassment, sexual violence, family pressure, and social stigma as reasons for detransitioning.2 Other associated factors included male sex assigned at birth, nonbinary gender identity, bisexual orientation, and having an unsupportive family.2
When Ames is explaining his “detransition” to his cisfemale partner, he states: “I got sick of living as trans …[sic]… I am trans, but I don’t need to do trans.”8 While there is still more research needed to further understand detransitioning and surgical regret, these few studies demonstrate a heart-breaking reality – in many aspects of our society it is still extremely difficult to live as a transgender person.
Dr. Brandt is an ob.gyn. and fellowship-trained gender-affirming surgeon in West Reading, Pa. She did not report any disclosures.
References
1. National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center, A program of the Fenway Institute: LGBTQIA+ glossary of terms for health care teams. 2020. Available at www.lgbtqiahealtheducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Glossary-2020.08.30.pdf. Accessed Dec. 30, 2021.
2. Turban JL et al. LGBT Health 2021;8(4):273-80.
3. Sterilization of women: Ethical issues and considerations. Committee Opinion No. 695. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Obstet Gynecol 2017;129:e109-16.
4. Ruppin U, Pfafflin F. Arch Sex Behav. 2015;44:1321-9.
5. Lawrence AA. Arch Sex Behav. 2003;32:299-315.
6. Landen M et al. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 1998;97:284-9.
7. Papdopulos NA et al. J Sex Med. 2017;14(5):721-30.
8. Peters T. Detransition, Baby. New York: Penguin Random House, 2021.
Over the holiday season I had the pleasure of finally reading the national bestseller, Detransition, Baby. On the surface, the story depicts the complex relationships between Reese, a transgender woman who strongly desires a family, her ex-wife, Ames – a transgender woman who detransitioned to live as a cisgender man – and Ames’ cisgender female partner, who is unexpectedly pregnant with his child. The story delves much deeper than the relationships between these characters, as it exceptionally articulates many of the emotional intricacies of the transgender experience and addresses one of the most taboo topics in the transgender community – detransitioning and regret.
The terms “transition” and “detransition” have fallen out of favor in the vernacular of the transgender population as they incorrectly imply that gender identity is contingent upon gender-affirmation processes.1,2 More importantly, the terms “detransition” and regret are not synonymous. Conflating these terms has undermined the intrinsic nature of gender identity, which has resulted in political and legal consequences seeking to limit or outright ban care for transgender patients.
As a gender-affirming surgeon, one of the most common questions I get asked is the rate of regret patients have after their surgeries. While I have no issue answering the question when it is presented, I do not hesitate to point out some of the problematic subtext inherent in such inquiries. Within the line of questioning, many often comment, “It’s so permanent,” “I can’t believe people can do this to their bodies,” or “How sure are patients before undergoing these surgeries?” While these comments and queries can be downright offensive, they seem to stem from the difficulty people have comprehending gender dysphoria and the painstaking steps people take to affirm their identity. The implication of these comments also reveals a more deep-seated issue – general distrust of individual bodily autonomy, personal identity, and choice.
For the obstetrician-gynecologist, understanding the concept of autonomous, patient-centered decision-making should be second nature, as we face a similar line of interrogation when discussing abortion, contraception, and pregnancy. No other field faces this level of scrutiny when it comes to defending a patient’s bodily autonomy. For example, given the history of reproductive injustice with tubal ligation procedures, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has issued clear guidelines regarding counseling of women while acknowledging the tenuous history of these procedures with minority subgroups. According to their committee opinion, ethical counseling for such a permanent procedure involves understanding the content of information presented to the patient, how that information is conveyed, and self-reflection on the part of the provider.3 The approach to counseling and understanding gender-affirming care is no different.
I want to be clear that regret after gender-affirming surgery is rare, occurring in 0%-3.8% of patients.4-6 In a separate study, 91% of patients expressed significant improvement in quality of life after surgery.7 However, what is disheartening about patients who experience surgical regret is that it originates from continued difficulty from the transition process itself and ongoing discrimination – even though the patient’s physical characteristics match their gender identity.4-6 Similarly, in another survey which examined 17,151 participants who had pursued gender affirmation (broadly defined), approximately 2,242 (13.1%) reported a history of detransition.2 Among these adults, the vast majority (82.5%), cited external factors such as school harassment, sexual violence, family pressure, and social stigma as reasons for detransitioning.2 Other associated factors included male sex assigned at birth, nonbinary gender identity, bisexual orientation, and having an unsupportive family.2
When Ames is explaining his “detransition” to his cisfemale partner, he states: “I got sick of living as trans …[sic]… I am trans, but I don’t need to do trans.”8 While there is still more research needed to further understand detransitioning and surgical regret, these few studies demonstrate a heart-breaking reality – in many aspects of our society it is still extremely difficult to live as a transgender person.
Dr. Brandt is an ob.gyn. and fellowship-trained gender-affirming surgeon in West Reading, Pa. She did not report any disclosures.
References
1. National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center, A program of the Fenway Institute: LGBTQIA+ glossary of terms for health care teams. 2020. Available at www.lgbtqiahealtheducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Glossary-2020.08.30.pdf. Accessed Dec. 30, 2021.
2. Turban JL et al. LGBT Health 2021;8(4):273-80.
3. Sterilization of women: Ethical issues and considerations. Committee Opinion No. 695. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Obstet Gynecol 2017;129:e109-16.
4. Ruppin U, Pfafflin F. Arch Sex Behav. 2015;44:1321-9.
5. Lawrence AA. Arch Sex Behav. 2003;32:299-315.
6. Landen M et al. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 1998;97:284-9.
7. Papdopulos NA et al. J Sex Med. 2017;14(5):721-30.
8. Peters T. Detransition, Baby. New York: Penguin Random House, 2021.
Over the holiday season I had the pleasure of finally reading the national bestseller, Detransition, Baby. On the surface, the story depicts the complex relationships between Reese, a transgender woman who strongly desires a family, her ex-wife, Ames – a transgender woman who detransitioned to live as a cisgender man – and Ames’ cisgender female partner, who is unexpectedly pregnant with his child. The story delves much deeper than the relationships between these characters, as it exceptionally articulates many of the emotional intricacies of the transgender experience and addresses one of the most taboo topics in the transgender community – detransitioning and regret.
The terms “transition” and “detransition” have fallen out of favor in the vernacular of the transgender population as they incorrectly imply that gender identity is contingent upon gender-affirmation processes.1,2 More importantly, the terms “detransition” and regret are not synonymous. Conflating these terms has undermined the intrinsic nature of gender identity, which has resulted in political and legal consequences seeking to limit or outright ban care for transgender patients.
As a gender-affirming surgeon, one of the most common questions I get asked is the rate of regret patients have after their surgeries. While I have no issue answering the question when it is presented, I do not hesitate to point out some of the problematic subtext inherent in such inquiries. Within the line of questioning, many often comment, “It’s so permanent,” “I can’t believe people can do this to their bodies,” or “How sure are patients before undergoing these surgeries?” While these comments and queries can be downright offensive, they seem to stem from the difficulty people have comprehending gender dysphoria and the painstaking steps people take to affirm their identity. The implication of these comments also reveals a more deep-seated issue – general distrust of individual bodily autonomy, personal identity, and choice.
For the obstetrician-gynecologist, understanding the concept of autonomous, patient-centered decision-making should be second nature, as we face a similar line of interrogation when discussing abortion, contraception, and pregnancy. No other field faces this level of scrutiny when it comes to defending a patient’s bodily autonomy. For example, given the history of reproductive injustice with tubal ligation procedures, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has issued clear guidelines regarding counseling of women while acknowledging the tenuous history of these procedures with minority subgroups. According to their committee opinion, ethical counseling for such a permanent procedure involves understanding the content of information presented to the patient, how that information is conveyed, and self-reflection on the part of the provider.3 The approach to counseling and understanding gender-affirming care is no different.
I want to be clear that regret after gender-affirming surgery is rare, occurring in 0%-3.8% of patients.4-6 In a separate study, 91% of patients expressed significant improvement in quality of life after surgery.7 However, what is disheartening about patients who experience surgical regret is that it originates from continued difficulty from the transition process itself and ongoing discrimination – even though the patient’s physical characteristics match their gender identity.4-6 Similarly, in another survey which examined 17,151 participants who had pursued gender affirmation (broadly defined), approximately 2,242 (13.1%) reported a history of detransition.2 Among these adults, the vast majority (82.5%), cited external factors such as school harassment, sexual violence, family pressure, and social stigma as reasons for detransitioning.2 Other associated factors included male sex assigned at birth, nonbinary gender identity, bisexual orientation, and having an unsupportive family.2
When Ames is explaining his “detransition” to his cisfemale partner, he states: “I got sick of living as trans …[sic]… I am trans, but I don’t need to do trans.”8 While there is still more research needed to further understand detransitioning and surgical regret, these few studies demonstrate a heart-breaking reality – in many aspects of our society it is still extremely difficult to live as a transgender person.
Dr. Brandt is an ob.gyn. and fellowship-trained gender-affirming surgeon in West Reading, Pa. She did not report any disclosures.
References
1. National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center, A program of the Fenway Institute: LGBTQIA+ glossary of terms for health care teams. 2020. Available at www.lgbtqiahealtheducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Glossary-2020.08.30.pdf. Accessed Dec. 30, 2021.
2. Turban JL et al. LGBT Health 2021;8(4):273-80.
3. Sterilization of women: Ethical issues and considerations. Committee Opinion No. 695. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Obstet Gynecol 2017;129:e109-16.
4. Ruppin U, Pfafflin F. Arch Sex Behav. 2015;44:1321-9.
5. Lawrence AA. Arch Sex Behav. 2003;32:299-315.
6. Landen M et al. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 1998;97:284-9.
7. Papdopulos NA et al. J Sex Med. 2017;14(5):721-30.
8. Peters T. Detransition, Baby. New York: Penguin Random House, 2021.
Mistake: Doc does vasectomy instead of circumcision; patient sues; more
, according to a story reported in the Des Moines Register, among other news sites.
In 2015, an immigrant from Myanmar named Zaw Zaw was referred by his primary care physician (PCP) to The Iowa Clinic, in West Des Moines, for a circumcision.
Because Mr. Zaw didn’t speak English, a language translation company provided him with an interpreter for the procedure, as well as for any necessary follow-up appointments. The procedure would be performed by urologist Kevin Birusingh, MD, who at the time was employed by the clinic. Prior to the surgery, however, a miscommunication occurred, leading the urologist to perform a vasectomy instead of a circumcision on his patient. It was not until a later follow-up visit that the error was discovered, along with Mr. Zaw’s realization that he was now medically sterile and unable to father more children.
Mr. Zaw sued both Dr. Birusingh and the clinic, which in turn sued the translation company. Against Dr. Birusingh, Mr. Zaw made two claims: one, that the doctor hadn’t obtained the proper informed consent, and two, that he had engaged in “negligent” communications with several key individuals, including other clinic staff members and Dr. Zaw’s PCP.
In 2019, a trial jury found the clinic liable, awarding Mr. Zaw more than $1.4 million in damages. The same jury found no liability on the part of the translation company, however.
Following the verdict, the clinic appealed to the Iowa Court of Appeals. Late last month, the appeals court sent the case back to the lower court for a new trial.
In its ruling, written by Judge Sharon Soorholtz Greer, the appeals court said it could find no evidence that, in failing to communicate personally with his colleagues or Mr. Zaw’s PCP, Dr. Birusingh had violated an established standard of care. For this reason, Judge Greer said, the claim of negligent communication should have been dismissed before it went to the jury. Because it hadn’t been, however, she concluded there was no way of determining to what extent, if at all, it affected the jury verdict. She ordered a new trial that would exclude the negligent communication claim.
In its appeal, The Iowa Clinic also sought to have the first claim dismissed – the one involving informed consent. Contrary to the testimony of a defense expert witness, the clinic argued, Iowa malpractice law doesn’t automatically fault a doctor whose patient misunderstands the procedure he or she is about to receive – as long as, that is, the doctor has made a “reasonable effort” to inform the patient beforehand.
Judge Greer agreed on this point of general law but still permitted the retrial to go forward. Why? She did so because, as the decision made clear, no expert testimony is needed to establish medical malpractice if the lack of care is so obvious that it’s within the comprehension of a layperson.
Mr. Zaw and his attorney, Ben Novotny, have petitioned the Iowa Supreme Court to review the appeals decision.
If the high court refuses that petition and the trial court schedules a new trial on the informed consent issue alone, Mr. Novotny is optimistic: “However it’s determined, whether it’s here [district court] or at the Supreme Court, we’ll live with the court’s decision, we’ll retry the case, and we’ll ask for more money.”
Jury exceeds state cap in infant head-trauma case
In what’s being called the state’s largest medical malpractice judgment to date, a Nebraska jury has handed down a multimillion-dollar award to a couple whose daughter was improperly discharged from the hospital after suffering a fall-related seizure, a story in the Omaha World-Herald reports.
The fall occurred in 2017 at a day care center, where then 11-month-old Vivianne Marousek hit her head while playing and began experiencing a seizure. Taken to an Omaha hospital, the infant was first treated by an emergency department doctor and then placed in the care of a hospital pediatrician. (The ED doctor wasn’t a party to the subsequent suit.)
According to the plaintiffs, after examining and observing the child, the pediatrician concluded that her seizures wouldn’t persist and that she should be discharged from the hospital. Within 48 hours after returning home, however, Vivianne suffered severe seizures, resulting in debilitating brain damage. Healthy before her fall, the now 6-year-old is blind, in a wheelchair, has a form of cerebral palsy, and can’t communicate beyond rudimentary responses to her parents’ voices.
After a 10-hour deliberation, the trial jury found both the hospital and the pediatrician liable for the child’s injuries. It awarded $21.5 million in damages for Vivianne’s ongoing medical care and $4.6 million in noneconomic damages to her parents.
An attorney for the hospital and pediatrician is expected to contest the award. Specifically, he’s expected to ask that the trial judge impose Nebraska’s $2.25 million cap on medical malpractice verdicts, thereby reducing the total award to $4.5 million, to be split evenly between Vivianne and her parents.
If that happens, the attorney for the plaintiffs has promised to contest the request, arguing that the state’s cap is unconstitutional and that the child’s lifetime medical bills will far exceed it.
University’s negligence caused them unnecessary suffering, women claim
A group of seven women has sued Yale University Medical School, in New Haven, Conn., for failing to safeguard the pain medication normally used during in vitro fertilization treatments, reports a story on Eyewitness News3 and other news sites.
The women’s suit follows a March 2021 guilty plea by a Yale staff nurse who was addicted to pain meds. In her plea, the nurse admitted to using a syringe to extract fentanyl from vials and then refilling those same vials with saline. Federal prosecutors say that at least 175 vials – some containing only saline and others with trace amounts of fentanyl – were tampered with in this manner.
As a result of Yale’s failure to guard against such actions, the women claim, they were subjected to unnecessary trauma and stress during their IVF treatments, which experts say can be unpleasant and take a physiologic toll on the body without the proper pain control.
The current suit won’t be the last, says the attorney representing the group of seven women. “We have somewhere on the line of 40-50 women who’ve been affected who contacted us,” he says.
A spokesperson for Yale declined to comment on the pending litigation.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
, according to a story reported in the Des Moines Register, among other news sites.
In 2015, an immigrant from Myanmar named Zaw Zaw was referred by his primary care physician (PCP) to The Iowa Clinic, in West Des Moines, for a circumcision.
Because Mr. Zaw didn’t speak English, a language translation company provided him with an interpreter for the procedure, as well as for any necessary follow-up appointments. The procedure would be performed by urologist Kevin Birusingh, MD, who at the time was employed by the clinic. Prior to the surgery, however, a miscommunication occurred, leading the urologist to perform a vasectomy instead of a circumcision on his patient. It was not until a later follow-up visit that the error was discovered, along with Mr. Zaw’s realization that he was now medically sterile and unable to father more children.
Mr. Zaw sued both Dr. Birusingh and the clinic, which in turn sued the translation company. Against Dr. Birusingh, Mr. Zaw made two claims: one, that the doctor hadn’t obtained the proper informed consent, and two, that he had engaged in “negligent” communications with several key individuals, including other clinic staff members and Dr. Zaw’s PCP.
In 2019, a trial jury found the clinic liable, awarding Mr. Zaw more than $1.4 million in damages. The same jury found no liability on the part of the translation company, however.
Following the verdict, the clinic appealed to the Iowa Court of Appeals. Late last month, the appeals court sent the case back to the lower court for a new trial.
In its ruling, written by Judge Sharon Soorholtz Greer, the appeals court said it could find no evidence that, in failing to communicate personally with his colleagues or Mr. Zaw’s PCP, Dr. Birusingh had violated an established standard of care. For this reason, Judge Greer said, the claim of negligent communication should have been dismissed before it went to the jury. Because it hadn’t been, however, she concluded there was no way of determining to what extent, if at all, it affected the jury verdict. She ordered a new trial that would exclude the negligent communication claim.
In its appeal, The Iowa Clinic also sought to have the first claim dismissed – the one involving informed consent. Contrary to the testimony of a defense expert witness, the clinic argued, Iowa malpractice law doesn’t automatically fault a doctor whose patient misunderstands the procedure he or she is about to receive – as long as, that is, the doctor has made a “reasonable effort” to inform the patient beforehand.
Judge Greer agreed on this point of general law but still permitted the retrial to go forward. Why? She did so because, as the decision made clear, no expert testimony is needed to establish medical malpractice if the lack of care is so obvious that it’s within the comprehension of a layperson.
Mr. Zaw and his attorney, Ben Novotny, have petitioned the Iowa Supreme Court to review the appeals decision.
If the high court refuses that petition and the trial court schedules a new trial on the informed consent issue alone, Mr. Novotny is optimistic: “However it’s determined, whether it’s here [district court] or at the Supreme Court, we’ll live with the court’s decision, we’ll retry the case, and we’ll ask for more money.”
Jury exceeds state cap in infant head-trauma case
In what’s being called the state’s largest medical malpractice judgment to date, a Nebraska jury has handed down a multimillion-dollar award to a couple whose daughter was improperly discharged from the hospital after suffering a fall-related seizure, a story in the Omaha World-Herald reports.
The fall occurred in 2017 at a day care center, where then 11-month-old Vivianne Marousek hit her head while playing and began experiencing a seizure. Taken to an Omaha hospital, the infant was first treated by an emergency department doctor and then placed in the care of a hospital pediatrician. (The ED doctor wasn’t a party to the subsequent suit.)
According to the plaintiffs, after examining and observing the child, the pediatrician concluded that her seizures wouldn’t persist and that she should be discharged from the hospital. Within 48 hours after returning home, however, Vivianne suffered severe seizures, resulting in debilitating brain damage. Healthy before her fall, the now 6-year-old is blind, in a wheelchair, has a form of cerebral palsy, and can’t communicate beyond rudimentary responses to her parents’ voices.
After a 10-hour deliberation, the trial jury found both the hospital and the pediatrician liable for the child’s injuries. It awarded $21.5 million in damages for Vivianne’s ongoing medical care and $4.6 million in noneconomic damages to her parents.
An attorney for the hospital and pediatrician is expected to contest the award. Specifically, he’s expected to ask that the trial judge impose Nebraska’s $2.25 million cap on medical malpractice verdicts, thereby reducing the total award to $4.5 million, to be split evenly between Vivianne and her parents.
If that happens, the attorney for the plaintiffs has promised to contest the request, arguing that the state’s cap is unconstitutional and that the child’s lifetime medical bills will far exceed it.
University’s negligence caused them unnecessary suffering, women claim
A group of seven women has sued Yale University Medical School, in New Haven, Conn., for failing to safeguard the pain medication normally used during in vitro fertilization treatments, reports a story on Eyewitness News3 and other news sites.
The women’s suit follows a March 2021 guilty plea by a Yale staff nurse who was addicted to pain meds. In her plea, the nurse admitted to using a syringe to extract fentanyl from vials and then refilling those same vials with saline. Federal prosecutors say that at least 175 vials – some containing only saline and others with trace amounts of fentanyl – were tampered with in this manner.
As a result of Yale’s failure to guard against such actions, the women claim, they were subjected to unnecessary trauma and stress during their IVF treatments, which experts say can be unpleasant and take a physiologic toll on the body without the proper pain control.
The current suit won’t be the last, says the attorney representing the group of seven women. “We have somewhere on the line of 40-50 women who’ve been affected who contacted us,” he says.
A spokesperson for Yale declined to comment on the pending litigation.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
, according to a story reported in the Des Moines Register, among other news sites.
In 2015, an immigrant from Myanmar named Zaw Zaw was referred by his primary care physician (PCP) to The Iowa Clinic, in West Des Moines, for a circumcision.
Because Mr. Zaw didn’t speak English, a language translation company provided him with an interpreter for the procedure, as well as for any necessary follow-up appointments. The procedure would be performed by urologist Kevin Birusingh, MD, who at the time was employed by the clinic. Prior to the surgery, however, a miscommunication occurred, leading the urologist to perform a vasectomy instead of a circumcision on his patient. It was not until a later follow-up visit that the error was discovered, along with Mr. Zaw’s realization that he was now medically sterile and unable to father more children.
Mr. Zaw sued both Dr. Birusingh and the clinic, which in turn sued the translation company. Against Dr. Birusingh, Mr. Zaw made two claims: one, that the doctor hadn’t obtained the proper informed consent, and two, that he had engaged in “negligent” communications with several key individuals, including other clinic staff members and Dr. Zaw’s PCP.
In 2019, a trial jury found the clinic liable, awarding Mr. Zaw more than $1.4 million in damages. The same jury found no liability on the part of the translation company, however.
Following the verdict, the clinic appealed to the Iowa Court of Appeals. Late last month, the appeals court sent the case back to the lower court for a new trial.
In its ruling, written by Judge Sharon Soorholtz Greer, the appeals court said it could find no evidence that, in failing to communicate personally with his colleagues or Mr. Zaw’s PCP, Dr. Birusingh had violated an established standard of care. For this reason, Judge Greer said, the claim of negligent communication should have been dismissed before it went to the jury. Because it hadn’t been, however, she concluded there was no way of determining to what extent, if at all, it affected the jury verdict. She ordered a new trial that would exclude the negligent communication claim.
In its appeal, The Iowa Clinic also sought to have the first claim dismissed – the one involving informed consent. Contrary to the testimony of a defense expert witness, the clinic argued, Iowa malpractice law doesn’t automatically fault a doctor whose patient misunderstands the procedure he or she is about to receive – as long as, that is, the doctor has made a “reasonable effort” to inform the patient beforehand.
Judge Greer agreed on this point of general law but still permitted the retrial to go forward. Why? She did so because, as the decision made clear, no expert testimony is needed to establish medical malpractice if the lack of care is so obvious that it’s within the comprehension of a layperson.
Mr. Zaw and his attorney, Ben Novotny, have petitioned the Iowa Supreme Court to review the appeals decision.
If the high court refuses that petition and the trial court schedules a new trial on the informed consent issue alone, Mr. Novotny is optimistic: “However it’s determined, whether it’s here [district court] or at the Supreme Court, we’ll live with the court’s decision, we’ll retry the case, and we’ll ask for more money.”
Jury exceeds state cap in infant head-trauma case
In what’s being called the state’s largest medical malpractice judgment to date, a Nebraska jury has handed down a multimillion-dollar award to a couple whose daughter was improperly discharged from the hospital after suffering a fall-related seizure, a story in the Omaha World-Herald reports.
The fall occurred in 2017 at a day care center, where then 11-month-old Vivianne Marousek hit her head while playing and began experiencing a seizure. Taken to an Omaha hospital, the infant was first treated by an emergency department doctor and then placed in the care of a hospital pediatrician. (The ED doctor wasn’t a party to the subsequent suit.)
According to the plaintiffs, after examining and observing the child, the pediatrician concluded that her seizures wouldn’t persist and that she should be discharged from the hospital. Within 48 hours after returning home, however, Vivianne suffered severe seizures, resulting in debilitating brain damage. Healthy before her fall, the now 6-year-old is blind, in a wheelchair, has a form of cerebral palsy, and can’t communicate beyond rudimentary responses to her parents’ voices.
After a 10-hour deliberation, the trial jury found both the hospital and the pediatrician liable for the child’s injuries. It awarded $21.5 million in damages for Vivianne’s ongoing medical care and $4.6 million in noneconomic damages to her parents.
An attorney for the hospital and pediatrician is expected to contest the award. Specifically, he’s expected to ask that the trial judge impose Nebraska’s $2.25 million cap on medical malpractice verdicts, thereby reducing the total award to $4.5 million, to be split evenly between Vivianne and her parents.
If that happens, the attorney for the plaintiffs has promised to contest the request, arguing that the state’s cap is unconstitutional and that the child’s lifetime medical bills will far exceed it.
University’s negligence caused them unnecessary suffering, women claim
A group of seven women has sued Yale University Medical School, in New Haven, Conn., for failing to safeguard the pain medication normally used during in vitro fertilization treatments, reports a story on Eyewitness News3 and other news sites.
The women’s suit follows a March 2021 guilty plea by a Yale staff nurse who was addicted to pain meds. In her plea, the nurse admitted to using a syringe to extract fentanyl from vials and then refilling those same vials with saline. Federal prosecutors say that at least 175 vials – some containing only saline and others with trace amounts of fentanyl – were tampered with in this manner.
As a result of Yale’s failure to guard against such actions, the women claim, they were subjected to unnecessary trauma and stress during their IVF treatments, which experts say can be unpleasant and take a physiologic toll on the body without the proper pain control.
The current suit won’t be the last, says the attorney representing the group of seven women. “We have somewhere on the line of 40-50 women who’ve been affected who contacted us,” he says.
A spokesperson for Yale declined to comment on the pending litigation.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
MDs doing wrong-site surgery: Why is it still happening?
In July 2021, University Hospitals, in Cleveland, announced that its staff had transplanted a kidney into the wrong patient. Although the patient who received the kidney was recovering well, the patient who was supposed to have received the kidney was skipped over. As a result of the error, two employees were placed on administrative leave and the incident was being investigated, the hospital announced.
In April 2020, an interventional radiologist at Boca Raton Regional Hospital, in Boca Raton, Fla., was sued for allegedly placing a stent into the wrong kidney of an 80-year-old patient. Using fluoroscopic guidance, the doctor removed an old stent from the right side but incorrectly replaced it with a new stent on the left side, according to an interview conducted by this news organization with the patient’s lawyers at Searcy Law, in West Palm Beach.
“The problem is that it is so rare that doctors don’t focus on it,” says Mary R. Kwaan, MD, a colorectal surgeon at UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles.
A 2006 study in which Kwaan was the lead author concluded that there was one wrong-site surgery for every 112,994 surgeries. Those mistakes can add up. A 2006 study estimated that 25 to 52 wrong-site surgeries were performed each week in the United States.
“Many surgeons don’t think it can happen to them, so they don’t take extra precautions,” says David Mayer, MD, executive director of the MedStar Institute for Quality and Safety, in Washington, DC. “When they make a wrong-site error, usually the first thing they say is, ‘I never thought this would happen to me,’ ” he says.
Wrong-site surgeries are considered sentinel events -- the worst kinds of medical errors. The Sullivan Group, a patient safety consultancy based in Colorado, reports that in 2013, 2.7% of patients who were involved in wrong-site surgeries died and 41% experienced some type of permanent injury. The mean malpractice payment was $127,000.
Some malpractice payments are much higher. In 2013, a Maryland ob.gyn paid a $1.42 million malpractice award for removing the wrong ovary from a woman in 2009. In 2017, a Pennsylvania urologist paid $870,000 for removing the wrong testicle from a man in 2013.
Wrong-site surgery often involves experienced surgeons
One might think that wrong-site surgeries usually involve younger or less-experienced surgeons, but that’s not the case; two thirds of the surgeons who perform wrong-site surgeries are in their 40s and 50s, compared with fewer than 25% younger than 40.
In a rather chilling statistic, in a 2013 survey, 12.4% of doctors who were involved in sentinel events in general had claims for more than one event.
These errors are more common in certain specialties. In a study reported in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Spine, 25% of orthopedic surgeons reported performing at least one wrong-site surgery during their career.
Within orthopedics, spine surgery is ground zero for wrong-site surgery. “Finding the site in spine surgery can be more difficult than in common left-right orthopedic procedures,” says Joseph A. Bosco III, a New York City orthopedist.
A 2007 study found that 25% of neurosurgeons had performed wrong-site surgeries. In Missouri in 2013, for example, a 53-year-old patient who was scheduled to undergo a left-sided craniotomy bypass allegedly underwent a right-sided craniotomy and was unable to speak after surgery.
Wrong-site surgeries are also performed by general surgeons, urologists, cardiologists, otolaryngologists, and ophthalmologists. A 2021 lawsuit accused a Tampa urologist of removing the patient’s wrong testicle. And a 2019 lawsuit accused a Chicago ophthalmologist of operating on the wrong eye to remove a cyst.
It’s not just the surgeon’s mistake
Mistakes are not only made by the surgeon in the operating room (OR). They can be made by staff when scheduling a surgery, radiologists and pathologists when writing their reports for surgery, and by team members in the OR.
Many people are prone to confusing left and right. A 2020 study found that 14.9% of people had difficulty distinguishing left from right; other studies have shown higher rates. Distractions increase the likelihood of mistakes. In a 2015 study, background noise in a hospital ward made it more difficult for medical students to make left-right judgments.
OR personnel can be confused when patients are turned around. “To operate on the back of someone’s leg, the surgeon may turn the patient from supine to prone, and so left becomes right,” says Samuel C. Seiden, MD, an anesthesiologist in Roseville, Calif., who has studied wrong-site surgery.
Operative site markings that are drawn on the skin can be rubbed off when surgical prep is applied, and markings aren’t usually possible for procedures such as spine surgeries. Surgical draping can make it harder to distinguish the patient’s left and right, and a busy surgeon relying on memory may confuse cases and perform wrong-patient surgery.
A push to eliminate wrong-site surgery
In 2004, the Joint Commission, which accredits hospitals and many surgery centers, decided to do something about wrong-site surgery and related surgical errors. It released a universal protocol, which requires hospitals to take three steps to prevent errors: perform preoperative verification that is based on patient care documents; mark the operative site; and take a time-out just before surgery, during which the team should consider whether a mistake is about to be made.
Two years after the Joint Commission published its protocol, Dr. Seiden led a study to determine what effect it had had. The investigators found that wrong-site cases had decreased by only about one third. Preventing wrong-site surgery “turns out to be more complicated to eradicate than anybody thought,” Mark Chassin, MD, president of the Joint Commission, stated a few years later.
Why did the protocol have only a limited effect? Dr. Seiden says that it has been hard to change doctors’ traditional attitudes against standardization. “Some have had an attitude that checklists are for dummies, but that is changing,” he says.
For instance, some surgical teams were not paying attention during time-outs. “The time-out should be like the invocation of the National Anthem,” an orthopedic surgeon from Iowa wrote. “All other activities should stop.”
Even had surgeons followed the universal protocol, about one third of wrong-site surgeries would not have been identified, according to Dr. Kwaan’s study, which was published in the same year as Dr. Seiden’s. As an example, when the wrong kidney was removed at Methodist Hospital, in St. Louis Park, Minn., the hospital said it was following a protocol set by the Minnesota Hospital Association.
Redoubling efforts
In 2009, the Joint Commission decided to take another tack. It encouraged hospitals to make root-cause analyses not only of wrong-site surgeries but also of near misses, which are much more plentiful. It used the insights gained to change surgical routines and protocols.
The Safe Surgery Project, a collaboration between the Joint Commission’s Center for Transforming Healthcare and eight hospitals and surgery centers, reduced the number of errors and near misses by 46% in the scheduling area, 63% in pre-op, and 51% in the OR area.
From that project, the center developed the Targeted Solutions Tool, which basically uses the same methodology that the project used. The center told this news organization that 79 healthcare organizations have used the tool and have reduced the number of errors and near misses by 56% in scheduling, 24% in pre-op, and 48% in the OR.
For this approach to work, however, surgical teams must report their errors to the hospital, which had not been done before. A 2008 study by the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that surgical staff did not report 86% of adverse events to their hospitals. Reasons given included lack of time, fear of punitive action, and skepticism that reporting would do any good.
Unlike some other adverse events, it’s hard to keep wrong-site surgeries secret from patients, because they can usually see the scars from it, but some surgeons invent ways to cover it up from patients, too, Dr. Mayer says. One wrong-side hernia repair was corrected in mid operation. Afterward, the surgeon told the patient that he had found another hernia on the other side and had fixed that one, too.
Changing the culture
Reformers argue that wrong-site surgeries can be prevented by changing the culture of the hospital or surgery center. “We have to think of wrong-site surgeries as a failure of the system, not of the individual,” says Ron Savrin, MD, a general surgeon in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, who is a surgery subject matter expert for the Sullivan Group. “It should never be only up to one individual to stop an error from occurring.”
Seeing oneself as part of a team can reduce errors. Although other people can introduce errors that make a person look bad, they can also stop the errors that might otherwise have occurred. Punishing individuals for making errors does little good in stopping errors.
“It’s human nature to want to punish somebody for making a mistake, and it’s hard to change that mentality,” Dr. Savrin says. He recalls that when he was a resident, “the morbidity and mortality conferences could be very difficult for anyone who made a mistake, but I think that attitude is changing.”
Studies have found wide variation in the number of wrong-site surgeries among hospitals. A recent Pennsylvania study found an average of one wrong-site surgery or near miss per hospital per year, but about one third of hospitals did not report any.
Wrong-site surgeries are often concentrated in certain hospitals -- even prestigious teaching hospitals are not immune. A decade ago, Rhode Island Hospital had five wrong-site surgeries in 2 years, and Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center had three wrong-spine surgeries within 2 months.
Other ways to reduce errors
Dr. Seiden thinks reform efforts should take a page from his own specialty. Anesthesiology has developed a variety of forcing functions, which are simple changes in technology that can stop errors. An example is the use of a valve that will not deliver a drug unless certain steps are followed.
The StartBox System, a new way to prevent surgical errors, delivers the surgery blade only after all safety information has been provided. Tested by 11 orthopedic surgeons performing 487 procedures, the system identified 17 near misses.
Another approach is to film time-outs so as to enforce compliance with protocols and help with root-cause analyses. NYU-Langone Medical Center, in New York City, not only films the time-out but also grades OR teams on compliance, says Dr. Bosco, who is vice chair of clinical affairs in the department of orthopedic surgery at the hospital.
In addition, more states are requiring hospitals to report adverse events, including wrong-site surgeries. According to the National Academy for State Health Policy, 28 states require the reporting of adverse events. However, only six states identify facilities in public reports; 16 states publish only aggregate data; and five states do not report error data to the public.
The goal is zero errors
Are there fewer wrong-site surgeries now? “My sense is that surgeons, hospitals, and surgery centers are taking wrong-site errors more seriously,” Dr. Savrin says.
Because reported information is spotty and no major studies on incidence have been conducted in recent years, “we don’t have a clear idea,” he says, “but my best guess is that the rate is declining.
“Absolute zero preventable errors has to be our goal,” Dr. Savrin says “We might not get there, but we can’t stop trying.”
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
In July 2021, University Hospitals, in Cleveland, announced that its staff had transplanted a kidney into the wrong patient. Although the patient who received the kidney was recovering well, the patient who was supposed to have received the kidney was skipped over. As a result of the error, two employees were placed on administrative leave and the incident was being investigated, the hospital announced.
In April 2020, an interventional radiologist at Boca Raton Regional Hospital, in Boca Raton, Fla., was sued for allegedly placing a stent into the wrong kidney of an 80-year-old patient. Using fluoroscopic guidance, the doctor removed an old stent from the right side but incorrectly replaced it with a new stent on the left side, according to an interview conducted by this news organization with the patient’s lawyers at Searcy Law, in West Palm Beach.
“The problem is that it is so rare that doctors don’t focus on it,” says Mary R. Kwaan, MD, a colorectal surgeon at UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles.
A 2006 study in which Kwaan was the lead author concluded that there was one wrong-site surgery for every 112,994 surgeries. Those mistakes can add up. A 2006 study estimated that 25 to 52 wrong-site surgeries were performed each week in the United States.
“Many surgeons don’t think it can happen to them, so they don’t take extra precautions,” says David Mayer, MD, executive director of the MedStar Institute for Quality and Safety, in Washington, DC. “When they make a wrong-site error, usually the first thing they say is, ‘I never thought this would happen to me,’ ” he says.
Wrong-site surgeries are considered sentinel events -- the worst kinds of medical errors. The Sullivan Group, a patient safety consultancy based in Colorado, reports that in 2013, 2.7% of patients who were involved in wrong-site surgeries died and 41% experienced some type of permanent injury. The mean malpractice payment was $127,000.
Some malpractice payments are much higher. In 2013, a Maryland ob.gyn paid a $1.42 million malpractice award for removing the wrong ovary from a woman in 2009. In 2017, a Pennsylvania urologist paid $870,000 for removing the wrong testicle from a man in 2013.
Wrong-site surgery often involves experienced surgeons
One might think that wrong-site surgeries usually involve younger or less-experienced surgeons, but that’s not the case; two thirds of the surgeons who perform wrong-site surgeries are in their 40s and 50s, compared with fewer than 25% younger than 40.
In a rather chilling statistic, in a 2013 survey, 12.4% of doctors who were involved in sentinel events in general had claims for more than one event.
These errors are more common in certain specialties. In a study reported in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Spine, 25% of orthopedic surgeons reported performing at least one wrong-site surgery during their career.
Within orthopedics, spine surgery is ground zero for wrong-site surgery. “Finding the site in spine surgery can be more difficult than in common left-right orthopedic procedures,” says Joseph A. Bosco III, a New York City orthopedist.
A 2007 study found that 25% of neurosurgeons had performed wrong-site surgeries. In Missouri in 2013, for example, a 53-year-old patient who was scheduled to undergo a left-sided craniotomy bypass allegedly underwent a right-sided craniotomy and was unable to speak after surgery.
Wrong-site surgeries are also performed by general surgeons, urologists, cardiologists, otolaryngologists, and ophthalmologists. A 2021 lawsuit accused a Tampa urologist of removing the patient’s wrong testicle. And a 2019 lawsuit accused a Chicago ophthalmologist of operating on the wrong eye to remove a cyst.
It’s not just the surgeon’s mistake
Mistakes are not only made by the surgeon in the operating room (OR). They can be made by staff when scheduling a surgery, radiologists and pathologists when writing their reports for surgery, and by team members in the OR.
Many people are prone to confusing left and right. A 2020 study found that 14.9% of people had difficulty distinguishing left from right; other studies have shown higher rates. Distractions increase the likelihood of mistakes. In a 2015 study, background noise in a hospital ward made it more difficult for medical students to make left-right judgments.
OR personnel can be confused when patients are turned around. “To operate on the back of someone’s leg, the surgeon may turn the patient from supine to prone, and so left becomes right,” says Samuel C. Seiden, MD, an anesthesiologist in Roseville, Calif., who has studied wrong-site surgery.
Operative site markings that are drawn on the skin can be rubbed off when surgical prep is applied, and markings aren’t usually possible for procedures such as spine surgeries. Surgical draping can make it harder to distinguish the patient’s left and right, and a busy surgeon relying on memory may confuse cases and perform wrong-patient surgery.
A push to eliminate wrong-site surgery
In 2004, the Joint Commission, which accredits hospitals and many surgery centers, decided to do something about wrong-site surgery and related surgical errors. It released a universal protocol, which requires hospitals to take three steps to prevent errors: perform preoperative verification that is based on patient care documents; mark the operative site; and take a time-out just before surgery, during which the team should consider whether a mistake is about to be made.
Two years after the Joint Commission published its protocol, Dr. Seiden led a study to determine what effect it had had. The investigators found that wrong-site cases had decreased by only about one third. Preventing wrong-site surgery “turns out to be more complicated to eradicate than anybody thought,” Mark Chassin, MD, president of the Joint Commission, stated a few years later.
Why did the protocol have only a limited effect? Dr. Seiden says that it has been hard to change doctors’ traditional attitudes against standardization. “Some have had an attitude that checklists are for dummies, but that is changing,” he says.
For instance, some surgical teams were not paying attention during time-outs. “The time-out should be like the invocation of the National Anthem,” an orthopedic surgeon from Iowa wrote. “All other activities should stop.”
Even had surgeons followed the universal protocol, about one third of wrong-site surgeries would not have been identified, according to Dr. Kwaan’s study, which was published in the same year as Dr. Seiden’s. As an example, when the wrong kidney was removed at Methodist Hospital, in St. Louis Park, Minn., the hospital said it was following a protocol set by the Minnesota Hospital Association.
Redoubling efforts
In 2009, the Joint Commission decided to take another tack. It encouraged hospitals to make root-cause analyses not only of wrong-site surgeries but also of near misses, which are much more plentiful. It used the insights gained to change surgical routines and protocols.
The Safe Surgery Project, a collaboration between the Joint Commission’s Center for Transforming Healthcare and eight hospitals and surgery centers, reduced the number of errors and near misses by 46% in the scheduling area, 63% in pre-op, and 51% in the OR area.
From that project, the center developed the Targeted Solutions Tool, which basically uses the same methodology that the project used. The center told this news organization that 79 healthcare organizations have used the tool and have reduced the number of errors and near misses by 56% in scheduling, 24% in pre-op, and 48% in the OR.
For this approach to work, however, surgical teams must report their errors to the hospital, which had not been done before. A 2008 study by the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that surgical staff did not report 86% of adverse events to their hospitals. Reasons given included lack of time, fear of punitive action, and skepticism that reporting would do any good.
Unlike some other adverse events, it’s hard to keep wrong-site surgeries secret from patients, because they can usually see the scars from it, but some surgeons invent ways to cover it up from patients, too, Dr. Mayer says. One wrong-side hernia repair was corrected in mid operation. Afterward, the surgeon told the patient that he had found another hernia on the other side and had fixed that one, too.
Changing the culture
Reformers argue that wrong-site surgeries can be prevented by changing the culture of the hospital or surgery center. “We have to think of wrong-site surgeries as a failure of the system, not of the individual,” says Ron Savrin, MD, a general surgeon in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, who is a surgery subject matter expert for the Sullivan Group. “It should never be only up to one individual to stop an error from occurring.”
Seeing oneself as part of a team can reduce errors. Although other people can introduce errors that make a person look bad, they can also stop the errors that might otherwise have occurred. Punishing individuals for making errors does little good in stopping errors.
“It’s human nature to want to punish somebody for making a mistake, and it’s hard to change that mentality,” Dr. Savrin says. He recalls that when he was a resident, “the morbidity and mortality conferences could be very difficult for anyone who made a mistake, but I think that attitude is changing.”
Studies have found wide variation in the number of wrong-site surgeries among hospitals. A recent Pennsylvania study found an average of one wrong-site surgery or near miss per hospital per year, but about one third of hospitals did not report any.
Wrong-site surgeries are often concentrated in certain hospitals -- even prestigious teaching hospitals are not immune. A decade ago, Rhode Island Hospital had five wrong-site surgeries in 2 years, and Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center had three wrong-spine surgeries within 2 months.
Other ways to reduce errors
Dr. Seiden thinks reform efforts should take a page from his own specialty. Anesthesiology has developed a variety of forcing functions, which are simple changes in technology that can stop errors. An example is the use of a valve that will not deliver a drug unless certain steps are followed.
The StartBox System, a new way to prevent surgical errors, delivers the surgery blade only after all safety information has been provided. Tested by 11 orthopedic surgeons performing 487 procedures, the system identified 17 near misses.
Another approach is to film time-outs so as to enforce compliance with protocols and help with root-cause analyses. NYU-Langone Medical Center, in New York City, not only films the time-out but also grades OR teams on compliance, says Dr. Bosco, who is vice chair of clinical affairs in the department of orthopedic surgery at the hospital.
In addition, more states are requiring hospitals to report adverse events, including wrong-site surgeries. According to the National Academy for State Health Policy, 28 states require the reporting of adverse events. However, only six states identify facilities in public reports; 16 states publish only aggregate data; and five states do not report error data to the public.
The goal is zero errors
Are there fewer wrong-site surgeries now? “My sense is that surgeons, hospitals, and surgery centers are taking wrong-site errors more seriously,” Dr. Savrin says.
Because reported information is spotty and no major studies on incidence have been conducted in recent years, “we don’t have a clear idea,” he says, “but my best guess is that the rate is declining.
“Absolute zero preventable errors has to be our goal,” Dr. Savrin says “We might not get there, but we can’t stop trying.”
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
In July 2021, University Hospitals, in Cleveland, announced that its staff had transplanted a kidney into the wrong patient. Although the patient who received the kidney was recovering well, the patient who was supposed to have received the kidney was skipped over. As a result of the error, two employees were placed on administrative leave and the incident was being investigated, the hospital announced.
In April 2020, an interventional radiologist at Boca Raton Regional Hospital, in Boca Raton, Fla., was sued for allegedly placing a stent into the wrong kidney of an 80-year-old patient. Using fluoroscopic guidance, the doctor removed an old stent from the right side but incorrectly replaced it with a new stent on the left side, according to an interview conducted by this news organization with the patient’s lawyers at Searcy Law, in West Palm Beach.
“The problem is that it is so rare that doctors don’t focus on it,” says Mary R. Kwaan, MD, a colorectal surgeon at UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles.
A 2006 study in which Kwaan was the lead author concluded that there was one wrong-site surgery for every 112,994 surgeries. Those mistakes can add up. A 2006 study estimated that 25 to 52 wrong-site surgeries were performed each week in the United States.
“Many surgeons don’t think it can happen to them, so they don’t take extra precautions,” says David Mayer, MD, executive director of the MedStar Institute for Quality and Safety, in Washington, DC. “When they make a wrong-site error, usually the first thing they say is, ‘I never thought this would happen to me,’ ” he says.
Wrong-site surgeries are considered sentinel events -- the worst kinds of medical errors. The Sullivan Group, a patient safety consultancy based in Colorado, reports that in 2013, 2.7% of patients who were involved in wrong-site surgeries died and 41% experienced some type of permanent injury. The mean malpractice payment was $127,000.
Some malpractice payments are much higher. In 2013, a Maryland ob.gyn paid a $1.42 million malpractice award for removing the wrong ovary from a woman in 2009. In 2017, a Pennsylvania urologist paid $870,000 for removing the wrong testicle from a man in 2013.
Wrong-site surgery often involves experienced surgeons
One might think that wrong-site surgeries usually involve younger or less-experienced surgeons, but that’s not the case; two thirds of the surgeons who perform wrong-site surgeries are in their 40s and 50s, compared with fewer than 25% younger than 40.
In a rather chilling statistic, in a 2013 survey, 12.4% of doctors who were involved in sentinel events in general had claims for more than one event.
These errors are more common in certain specialties. In a study reported in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Spine, 25% of orthopedic surgeons reported performing at least one wrong-site surgery during their career.
Within orthopedics, spine surgery is ground zero for wrong-site surgery. “Finding the site in spine surgery can be more difficult than in common left-right orthopedic procedures,” says Joseph A. Bosco III, a New York City orthopedist.
A 2007 study found that 25% of neurosurgeons had performed wrong-site surgeries. In Missouri in 2013, for example, a 53-year-old patient who was scheduled to undergo a left-sided craniotomy bypass allegedly underwent a right-sided craniotomy and was unable to speak after surgery.
Wrong-site surgeries are also performed by general surgeons, urologists, cardiologists, otolaryngologists, and ophthalmologists. A 2021 lawsuit accused a Tampa urologist of removing the patient’s wrong testicle. And a 2019 lawsuit accused a Chicago ophthalmologist of operating on the wrong eye to remove a cyst.
It’s not just the surgeon’s mistake
Mistakes are not only made by the surgeon in the operating room (OR). They can be made by staff when scheduling a surgery, radiologists and pathologists when writing their reports for surgery, and by team members in the OR.
Many people are prone to confusing left and right. A 2020 study found that 14.9% of people had difficulty distinguishing left from right; other studies have shown higher rates. Distractions increase the likelihood of mistakes. In a 2015 study, background noise in a hospital ward made it more difficult for medical students to make left-right judgments.
OR personnel can be confused when patients are turned around. “To operate on the back of someone’s leg, the surgeon may turn the patient from supine to prone, and so left becomes right,” says Samuel C. Seiden, MD, an anesthesiologist in Roseville, Calif., who has studied wrong-site surgery.
Operative site markings that are drawn on the skin can be rubbed off when surgical prep is applied, and markings aren’t usually possible for procedures such as spine surgeries. Surgical draping can make it harder to distinguish the patient’s left and right, and a busy surgeon relying on memory may confuse cases and perform wrong-patient surgery.
A push to eliminate wrong-site surgery
In 2004, the Joint Commission, which accredits hospitals and many surgery centers, decided to do something about wrong-site surgery and related surgical errors. It released a universal protocol, which requires hospitals to take three steps to prevent errors: perform preoperative verification that is based on patient care documents; mark the operative site; and take a time-out just before surgery, during which the team should consider whether a mistake is about to be made.
Two years after the Joint Commission published its protocol, Dr. Seiden led a study to determine what effect it had had. The investigators found that wrong-site cases had decreased by only about one third. Preventing wrong-site surgery “turns out to be more complicated to eradicate than anybody thought,” Mark Chassin, MD, president of the Joint Commission, stated a few years later.
Why did the protocol have only a limited effect? Dr. Seiden says that it has been hard to change doctors’ traditional attitudes against standardization. “Some have had an attitude that checklists are for dummies, but that is changing,” he says.
For instance, some surgical teams were not paying attention during time-outs. “The time-out should be like the invocation of the National Anthem,” an orthopedic surgeon from Iowa wrote. “All other activities should stop.”
Even had surgeons followed the universal protocol, about one third of wrong-site surgeries would not have been identified, according to Dr. Kwaan’s study, which was published in the same year as Dr. Seiden’s. As an example, when the wrong kidney was removed at Methodist Hospital, in St. Louis Park, Minn., the hospital said it was following a protocol set by the Minnesota Hospital Association.
Redoubling efforts
In 2009, the Joint Commission decided to take another tack. It encouraged hospitals to make root-cause analyses not only of wrong-site surgeries but also of near misses, which are much more plentiful. It used the insights gained to change surgical routines and protocols.
The Safe Surgery Project, a collaboration between the Joint Commission’s Center for Transforming Healthcare and eight hospitals and surgery centers, reduced the number of errors and near misses by 46% in the scheduling area, 63% in pre-op, and 51% in the OR area.
From that project, the center developed the Targeted Solutions Tool, which basically uses the same methodology that the project used. The center told this news organization that 79 healthcare organizations have used the tool and have reduced the number of errors and near misses by 56% in scheduling, 24% in pre-op, and 48% in the OR.
For this approach to work, however, surgical teams must report their errors to the hospital, which had not been done before. A 2008 study by the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that surgical staff did not report 86% of adverse events to their hospitals. Reasons given included lack of time, fear of punitive action, and skepticism that reporting would do any good.
Unlike some other adverse events, it’s hard to keep wrong-site surgeries secret from patients, because they can usually see the scars from it, but some surgeons invent ways to cover it up from patients, too, Dr. Mayer says. One wrong-side hernia repair was corrected in mid operation. Afterward, the surgeon told the patient that he had found another hernia on the other side and had fixed that one, too.
Changing the culture
Reformers argue that wrong-site surgeries can be prevented by changing the culture of the hospital or surgery center. “We have to think of wrong-site surgeries as a failure of the system, not of the individual,” says Ron Savrin, MD, a general surgeon in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, who is a surgery subject matter expert for the Sullivan Group. “It should never be only up to one individual to stop an error from occurring.”
Seeing oneself as part of a team can reduce errors. Although other people can introduce errors that make a person look bad, they can also stop the errors that might otherwise have occurred. Punishing individuals for making errors does little good in stopping errors.
“It’s human nature to want to punish somebody for making a mistake, and it’s hard to change that mentality,” Dr. Savrin says. He recalls that when he was a resident, “the morbidity and mortality conferences could be very difficult for anyone who made a mistake, but I think that attitude is changing.”
Studies have found wide variation in the number of wrong-site surgeries among hospitals. A recent Pennsylvania study found an average of one wrong-site surgery or near miss per hospital per year, but about one third of hospitals did not report any.
Wrong-site surgeries are often concentrated in certain hospitals -- even prestigious teaching hospitals are not immune. A decade ago, Rhode Island Hospital had five wrong-site surgeries in 2 years, and Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center had three wrong-spine surgeries within 2 months.
Other ways to reduce errors
Dr. Seiden thinks reform efforts should take a page from his own specialty. Anesthesiology has developed a variety of forcing functions, which are simple changes in technology that can stop errors. An example is the use of a valve that will not deliver a drug unless certain steps are followed.
The StartBox System, a new way to prevent surgical errors, delivers the surgery blade only after all safety information has been provided. Tested by 11 orthopedic surgeons performing 487 procedures, the system identified 17 near misses.
Another approach is to film time-outs so as to enforce compliance with protocols and help with root-cause analyses. NYU-Langone Medical Center, in New York City, not only films the time-out but also grades OR teams on compliance, says Dr. Bosco, who is vice chair of clinical affairs in the department of orthopedic surgery at the hospital.
In addition, more states are requiring hospitals to report adverse events, including wrong-site surgeries. According to the National Academy for State Health Policy, 28 states require the reporting of adverse events. However, only six states identify facilities in public reports; 16 states publish only aggregate data; and five states do not report error data to the public.
The goal is zero errors
Are there fewer wrong-site surgeries now? “My sense is that surgeons, hospitals, and surgery centers are taking wrong-site errors more seriously,” Dr. Savrin says.
Because reported information is spotty and no major studies on incidence have been conducted in recent years, “we don’t have a clear idea,” he says, “but my best guess is that the rate is declining.
“Absolute zero preventable errors has to be our goal,” Dr. Savrin says “We might not get there, but we can’t stop trying.”
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
Pelvic floor dysfunction imaging: New guidelines provide recommendations
New consensus guidelines from a multispecialty working group of the Pelvic Floor Disorders Consortium (PFDC) clear up inconsistencies in the use of magnetic resonance defecography (MRD) and provide universal recommendations on MRD technique, interpretation, reporting, and other factors.
“The consensus language used to describe pelvic floor disorders is critical, so as to allow the various experts who treat these patients [to] communicate and collaborate effectively with each other,” coauthor Liliana Bordeianou, MD, MPH, an associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and chair of the Massachusetts General Hospital Colorectal and Pelvic Floor Centers, told this news organization.
“These diseases do not choose an arbitrary side in the pelvis,” she noted. “Instead, these diseases affect the entire pelvis and require a multidisciplinary and collaborative solution.”
MRD is a key component in that solution, providing dynamic evaluation of pelvic floor function and visualization of the complex interaction in pelvic compartments among patients with defecatory pelvic floor disorders, such as vaginal or uterine prolapse, constipation, incontinence, or other pelvic floor dysfunctions.
However, a key shortcoming has been a lack of consistency in nomenclature and the reporting of MRD findings among institutions and subspecialties.
Clinicians may wind up using different definitions for the same condition and different thresholds for grading severity, resulting in inconsistent communication not only between clinicians across institutions but even within the same institution, the report notes.
To address the situation, radiologists with the Pelvic Floor Dysfunction Disease Focused Panel of the Society of Abdominal Radiology (SAR) published recommendations on MRD protocol and technique in April.
However, even with that guidance, there has been significant variability in the interpretation and utilization of MRD findings among specialties outside of radiology.
The new report was therefore developed to include input from the broad variety of specialists involved in the treatment of patients with pelvic floor disorders, including colorectal surgeons, urogynecologists, urologists, gynecologists, gastroenterologists, radiologists, physiotherapists, and other advanced care practitioners.
“The goal of this effort was to create a universal set of recommendations and language for MRD technique, interpretation, and reporting that can be utilized and carry the same significance across disciplines,” write the authors of the report, published in the American Journal of Roentgenology.
One key area addressed in the report is a recommendation that MRD can be performed in either the upright or supine position, which has been a topic of inconsistency, said Brooke Gurland, MD, medical director of the Pelvic Health Center at Stanford University, California, a co-author on the consensus statement.
“Supine versus upright position was a source of debate, but ultimately there was a consensus that supine position was acceptable,” she told said in an interview.
Regarding positioning, the recommendations conclude that “given the variable results from different studies, consortium members agreed that it is acceptable to perform MRD in the supine position when upright MRD is not available.”
“Importantly, consortium experts stressed that it is very important that this imaging be performed after proper patient education on the purpose of the examination,” they note.
Other recommendations delve into contrast medium considerations, such as the recommendation that MRD does not require the routine use of vaginal contrast medium for adequate imaging of pathology.
And guidance on the technique and grading of relevant pathology include a recommendation to use the pubococcygeal line (PCL) as a point of reference to quantify the prolapse of organs in all compartments of the pelvic floor.
“There is an increasing appreciation that most patients with pelvic organ prolapse experience dual or even triple compartment pathology, making it important to describe the observations in all three compartments to ensure the mobilization of the appropriate team of experts to treat the patient,” the authors note.
The consensus report features an interpretative template providing synopses of the recommendations, which can be adjusted and modified according to additional radiologic information, as well as individualized patient information or clinician preferences.
However, “the suggested verbiage and steps should be advocated as the minimum requirements when performing and interpreting MRD in patients with evacuation disorders of the pelvic floor,” the authors note.
Dr. Gurland added that, in addition to providing benefits in the present utilization of MRD, the clearer guidelines should help advance its use to improve patient care in the future.
“Standardizing imaging techniques, reporting, and language is critical to improving our understanding and then developing therapies for pelvic floor disorders,” she said.
“In the future, correlating MRD with surgical outcomes and identifying modifiable risk factors will improve patient care.”
In addition to being published in the AJR, the report was published concurrently in the journals Diseases of the Colon & Rectum, International Urogynecology Journal, and Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery.
The authors of the guidelines have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
New consensus guidelines from a multispecialty working group of the Pelvic Floor Disorders Consortium (PFDC) clear up inconsistencies in the use of magnetic resonance defecography (MRD) and provide universal recommendations on MRD technique, interpretation, reporting, and other factors.
“The consensus language used to describe pelvic floor disorders is critical, so as to allow the various experts who treat these patients [to] communicate and collaborate effectively with each other,” coauthor Liliana Bordeianou, MD, MPH, an associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and chair of the Massachusetts General Hospital Colorectal and Pelvic Floor Centers, told this news organization.
“These diseases do not choose an arbitrary side in the pelvis,” she noted. “Instead, these diseases affect the entire pelvis and require a multidisciplinary and collaborative solution.”
MRD is a key component in that solution, providing dynamic evaluation of pelvic floor function and visualization of the complex interaction in pelvic compartments among patients with defecatory pelvic floor disorders, such as vaginal or uterine prolapse, constipation, incontinence, or other pelvic floor dysfunctions.
However, a key shortcoming has been a lack of consistency in nomenclature and the reporting of MRD findings among institutions and subspecialties.
Clinicians may wind up using different definitions for the same condition and different thresholds for grading severity, resulting in inconsistent communication not only between clinicians across institutions but even within the same institution, the report notes.
To address the situation, radiologists with the Pelvic Floor Dysfunction Disease Focused Panel of the Society of Abdominal Radiology (SAR) published recommendations on MRD protocol and technique in April.
However, even with that guidance, there has been significant variability in the interpretation and utilization of MRD findings among specialties outside of radiology.
The new report was therefore developed to include input from the broad variety of specialists involved in the treatment of patients with pelvic floor disorders, including colorectal surgeons, urogynecologists, urologists, gynecologists, gastroenterologists, radiologists, physiotherapists, and other advanced care practitioners.
“The goal of this effort was to create a universal set of recommendations and language for MRD technique, interpretation, and reporting that can be utilized and carry the same significance across disciplines,” write the authors of the report, published in the American Journal of Roentgenology.
One key area addressed in the report is a recommendation that MRD can be performed in either the upright or supine position, which has been a topic of inconsistency, said Brooke Gurland, MD, medical director of the Pelvic Health Center at Stanford University, California, a co-author on the consensus statement.
“Supine versus upright position was a source of debate, but ultimately there was a consensus that supine position was acceptable,” she told said in an interview.
Regarding positioning, the recommendations conclude that “given the variable results from different studies, consortium members agreed that it is acceptable to perform MRD in the supine position when upright MRD is not available.”
“Importantly, consortium experts stressed that it is very important that this imaging be performed after proper patient education on the purpose of the examination,” they note.
Other recommendations delve into contrast medium considerations, such as the recommendation that MRD does not require the routine use of vaginal contrast medium for adequate imaging of pathology.
And guidance on the technique and grading of relevant pathology include a recommendation to use the pubococcygeal line (PCL) as a point of reference to quantify the prolapse of organs in all compartments of the pelvic floor.
“There is an increasing appreciation that most patients with pelvic organ prolapse experience dual or even triple compartment pathology, making it important to describe the observations in all three compartments to ensure the mobilization of the appropriate team of experts to treat the patient,” the authors note.
The consensus report features an interpretative template providing synopses of the recommendations, which can be adjusted and modified according to additional radiologic information, as well as individualized patient information or clinician preferences.
However, “the suggested verbiage and steps should be advocated as the minimum requirements when performing and interpreting MRD in patients with evacuation disorders of the pelvic floor,” the authors note.
Dr. Gurland added that, in addition to providing benefits in the present utilization of MRD, the clearer guidelines should help advance its use to improve patient care in the future.
“Standardizing imaging techniques, reporting, and language is critical to improving our understanding and then developing therapies for pelvic floor disorders,” she said.
“In the future, correlating MRD with surgical outcomes and identifying modifiable risk factors will improve patient care.”
In addition to being published in the AJR, the report was published concurrently in the journals Diseases of the Colon & Rectum, International Urogynecology Journal, and Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery.
The authors of the guidelines have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
New consensus guidelines from a multispecialty working group of the Pelvic Floor Disorders Consortium (PFDC) clear up inconsistencies in the use of magnetic resonance defecography (MRD) and provide universal recommendations on MRD technique, interpretation, reporting, and other factors.
“The consensus language used to describe pelvic floor disorders is critical, so as to allow the various experts who treat these patients [to] communicate and collaborate effectively with each other,” coauthor Liliana Bordeianou, MD, MPH, an associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and chair of the Massachusetts General Hospital Colorectal and Pelvic Floor Centers, told this news organization.
“These diseases do not choose an arbitrary side in the pelvis,” she noted. “Instead, these diseases affect the entire pelvis and require a multidisciplinary and collaborative solution.”
MRD is a key component in that solution, providing dynamic evaluation of pelvic floor function and visualization of the complex interaction in pelvic compartments among patients with defecatory pelvic floor disorders, such as vaginal or uterine prolapse, constipation, incontinence, or other pelvic floor dysfunctions.
However, a key shortcoming has been a lack of consistency in nomenclature and the reporting of MRD findings among institutions and subspecialties.
Clinicians may wind up using different definitions for the same condition and different thresholds for grading severity, resulting in inconsistent communication not only between clinicians across institutions but even within the same institution, the report notes.
To address the situation, radiologists with the Pelvic Floor Dysfunction Disease Focused Panel of the Society of Abdominal Radiology (SAR) published recommendations on MRD protocol and technique in April.
However, even with that guidance, there has been significant variability in the interpretation and utilization of MRD findings among specialties outside of radiology.
The new report was therefore developed to include input from the broad variety of specialists involved in the treatment of patients with pelvic floor disorders, including colorectal surgeons, urogynecologists, urologists, gynecologists, gastroenterologists, radiologists, physiotherapists, and other advanced care practitioners.
“The goal of this effort was to create a universal set of recommendations and language for MRD technique, interpretation, and reporting that can be utilized and carry the same significance across disciplines,” write the authors of the report, published in the American Journal of Roentgenology.
One key area addressed in the report is a recommendation that MRD can be performed in either the upright or supine position, which has been a topic of inconsistency, said Brooke Gurland, MD, medical director of the Pelvic Health Center at Stanford University, California, a co-author on the consensus statement.
“Supine versus upright position was a source of debate, but ultimately there was a consensus that supine position was acceptable,” she told said in an interview.
Regarding positioning, the recommendations conclude that “given the variable results from different studies, consortium members agreed that it is acceptable to perform MRD in the supine position when upright MRD is not available.”
“Importantly, consortium experts stressed that it is very important that this imaging be performed after proper patient education on the purpose of the examination,” they note.
Other recommendations delve into contrast medium considerations, such as the recommendation that MRD does not require the routine use of vaginal contrast medium for adequate imaging of pathology.
And guidance on the technique and grading of relevant pathology include a recommendation to use the pubococcygeal line (PCL) as a point of reference to quantify the prolapse of organs in all compartments of the pelvic floor.
“There is an increasing appreciation that most patients with pelvic organ prolapse experience dual or even triple compartment pathology, making it important to describe the observations in all three compartments to ensure the mobilization of the appropriate team of experts to treat the patient,” the authors note.
The consensus report features an interpretative template providing synopses of the recommendations, which can be adjusted and modified according to additional radiologic information, as well as individualized patient information or clinician preferences.
However, “the suggested verbiage and steps should be advocated as the minimum requirements when performing and interpreting MRD in patients with evacuation disorders of the pelvic floor,” the authors note.
Dr. Gurland added that, in addition to providing benefits in the present utilization of MRD, the clearer guidelines should help advance its use to improve patient care in the future.
“Standardizing imaging techniques, reporting, and language is critical to improving our understanding and then developing therapies for pelvic floor disorders,” she said.
“In the future, correlating MRD with surgical outcomes and identifying modifiable risk factors will improve patient care.”
In addition to being published in the AJR, the report was published concurrently in the journals Diseases of the Colon & Rectum, International Urogynecology Journal, and Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery.
The authors of the guidelines have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
Pubovaginal sling during urethral diverticulectomy reduces stress incontinence
a large retrospective cohort study has found.
However, in 66% of cases in which the diverticulectomy alone was performed, women also saw their stress urinary incontinence (SUI) resolve.
For a study published online in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sarah E. Bradley, MD, of Georgetown University in Washington and colleagues analyzed records for 485 urethral diverticulectomies performed at 11 institutions over a 16-year period. One-fifth of patients had an autologous fascial pubovaginal sling (PVS) placed at the time of surgery.
The concomitant sling was associated with a significantly greater reduction of SUI after adjustment for prior diverticulectomy, prior incontinence surgery, age, race, and parity (adjusted odds ratio, 2.27; 95% confidence interval, 1.02-5.03; P = .043).
However, 10% of women in the sling-treated group had recurrent UTI from 6 weeks after surgery, compared with 3% of those in the diverticulectomy-only group (P = .001). Even after adjustment for higher rates of UTI before surgery in the sling group, the odds of recurrent UTI still were higher with the concomitant sling. Women within the sling group also were more likely to experience urinary retention at more than 6 weeks after surgery (8% vs. 1%; P equal to .0001).
Dr. Bradley and her colleagues noted that theirs was the largest study to date evaluating postoperative SUI in patients undergoing diverticulectomy with and without a PVS, noting that many surgeons do not routinely offer the sling at the time of diverticulectomy.
They also acknowledged a selection bias in their study. “With the previously thought theoretical increased risk of the addition of PVS, it is likely that most providers would prefer only to offer this concomitant procedure to those with significantly bothersome SUI. Additionally, the majority of women that underwent PVS (83%) came from two of the 11 participating institutions,” the researchers wrote.
In an interview, Catherine A. Mathews, MD, of Wake Forest University in Winston Salem, N.C., argued for a different interpretation of the study’s results.
“The study was beautifully done and it’s an ideal subject for a review, but in some respect the authors missed the opportunity to highlight that there was a spontaneous resolution of stress incontinence symptoms in 66% of women who received diverticulectomy alone,” Dr. Matthews said, adding that this has important implications for medical decision-making and patient choice.
“Morbidity associated with the pubovaginal sling was very low in this study, probably because it was being done by very proficient surgeons, but in many centers it is higher,” Dr. Matthews said. Even with the overall low morbidity seen in the study, “there was still a significant price to pay” for some women in the pubovaginal sling–treated group. “Recurrent UTI can be challenging to manage in the long term, with antibiotic morbidity and significant symptom bother. For the patients with urinary retention, having to manage it with a catheter is a really awful.”
Dr. Matthews said that the study made a case for interval, rather than concomitant, sling placement in women undergoing urethral diverticulectomy. “If you have a patient who insists on addressing symptoms concomitantly, this study provides good information about the long-term likelihood of two complications: urinary retention and recurrent UTI,” she said. “The vast majority of patients that I’m counseling would choose not to have the sling because of these complications.” And while avoiding reoperation may seem a good reason to opt for the PVS during diverticulectomy, the sling was not associated with a decrease in reoperations, compared with diverticulectomy alone, she noted.
“As we can see in the study, diverticulectomy itself has a high impact on stress incontinence,” Dr. Matthews continued. “If you restore the urethral anatomy and wait for the urethra to heal, you have a very good chance that the incontinence resolves.” For those women who do not see resolution and whose symptoms are still severe enough to bother them, “you’d have the flexibility postoperatively to offer not only a pubovaginal sling, but a synthetic mesh sling or a urethral bulking procedure.”
Dr. Bradley and her colleagues reported no relevant financial disclosures. Dr. Matthews disclosed financial support from Boston Scientific and serving as an expert witness for Johnson & Johnson.
SOURCE: Bradley SE et al. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2020. doi: 10.1016/j.ajog.2020.06.002.
a large retrospective cohort study has found.
However, in 66% of cases in which the diverticulectomy alone was performed, women also saw their stress urinary incontinence (SUI) resolve.
For a study published online in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sarah E. Bradley, MD, of Georgetown University in Washington and colleagues analyzed records for 485 urethral diverticulectomies performed at 11 institutions over a 16-year period. One-fifth of patients had an autologous fascial pubovaginal sling (PVS) placed at the time of surgery.
The concomitant sling was associated with a significantly greater reduction of SUI after adjustment for prior diverticulectomy, prior incontinence surgery, age, race, and parity (adjusted odds ratio, 2.27; 95% confidence interval, 1.02-5.03; P = .043).
However, 10% of women in the sling-treated group had recurrent UTI from 6 weeks after surgery, compared with 3% of those in the diverticulectomy-only group (P = .001). Even after adjustment for higher rates of UTI before surgery in the sling group, the odds of recurrent UTI still were higher with the concomitant sling. Women within the sling group also were more likely to experience urinary retention at more than 6 weeks after surgery (8% vs. 1%; P equal to .0001).
Dr. Bradley and her colleagues noted that theirs was the largest study to date evaluating postoperative SUI in patients undergoing diverticulectomy with and without a PVS, noting that many surgeons do not routinely offer the sling at the time of diverticulectomy.
They also acknowledged a selection bias in their study. “With the previously thought theoretical increased risk of the addition of PVS, it is likely that most providers would prefer only to offer this concomitant procedure to those with significantly bothersome SUI. Additionally, the majority of women that underwent PVS (83%) came from two of the 11 participating institutions,” the researchers wrote.
In an interview, Catherine A. Mathews, MD, of Wake Forest University in Winston Salem, N.C., argued for a different interpretation of the study’s results.
“The study was beautifully done and it’s an ideal subject for a review, but in some respect the authors missed the opportunity to highlight that there was a spontaneous resolution of stress incontinence symptoms in 66% of women who received diverticulectomy alone,” Dr. Matthews said, adding that this has important implications for medical decision-making and patient choice.
“Morbidity associated with the pubovaginal sling was very low in this study, probably because it was being done by very proficient surgeons, but in many centers it is higher,” Dr. Matthews said. Even with the overall low morbidity seen in the study, “there was still a significant price to pay” for some women in the pubovaginal sling–treated group. “Recurrent UTI can be challenging to manage in the long term, with antibiotic morbidity and significant symptom bother. For the patients with urinary retention, having to manage it with a catheter is a really awful.”
Dr. Matthews said that the study made a case for interval, rather than concomitant, sling placement in women undergoing urethral diverticulectomy. “If you have a patient who insists on addressing symptoms concomitantly, this study provides good information about the long-term likelihood of two complications: urinary retention and recurrent UTI,” she said. “The vast majority of patients that I’m counseling would choose not to have the sling because of these complications.” And while avoiding reoperation may seem a good reason to opt for the PVS during diverticulectomy, the sling was not associated with a decrease in reoperations, compared with diverticulectomy alone, she noted.
“As we can see in the study, diverticulectomy itself has a high impact on stress incontinence,” Dr. Matthews continued. “If you restore the urethral anatomy and wait for the urethra to heal, you have a very good chance that the incontinence resolves.” For those women who do not see resolution and whose symptoms are still severe enough to bother them, “you’d have the flexibility postoperatively to offer not only a pubovaginal sling, but a synthetic mesh sling or a urethral bulking procedure.”
Dr. Bradley and her colleagues reported no relevant financial disclosures. Dr. Matthews disclosed financial support from Boston Scientific and serving as an expert witness for Johnson & Johnson.
SOURCE: Bradley SE et al. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2020. doi: 10.1016/j.ajog.2020.06.002.
a large retrospective cohort study has found.
However, in 66% of cases in which the diverticulectomy alone was performed, women also saw their stress urinary incontinence (SUI) resolve.
For a study published online in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sarah E. Bradley, MD, of Georgetown University in Washington and colleagues analyzed records for 485 urethral diverticulectomies performed at 11 institutions over a 16-year period. One-fifth of patients had an autologous fascial pubovaginal sling (PVS) placed at the time of surgery.
The concomitant sling was associated with a significantly greater reduction of SUI after adjustment for prior diverticulectomy, prior incontinence surgery, age, race, and parity (adjusted odds ratio, 2.27; 95% confidence interval, 1.02-5.03; P = .043).
However, 10% of women in the sling-treated group had recurrent UTI from 6 weeks after surgery, compared with 3% of those in the diverticulectomy-only group (P = .001). Even after adjustment for higher rates of UTI before surgery in the sling group, the odds of recurrent UTI still were higher with the concomitant sling. Women within the sling group also were more likely to experience urinary retention at more than 6 weeks after surgery (8% vs. 1%; P equal to .0001).
Dr. Bradley and her colleagues noted that theirs was the largest study to date evaluating postoperative SUI in patients undergoing diverticulectomy with and without a PVS, noting that many surgeons do not routinely offer the sling at the time of diverticulectomy.
They also acknowledged a selection bias in their study. “With the previously thought theoretical increased risk of the addition of PVS, it is likely that most providers would prefer only to offer this concomitant procedure to those with significantly bothersome SUI. Additionally, the majority of women that underwent PVS (83%) came from two of the 11 participating institutions,” the researchers wrote.
In an interview, Catherine A. Mathews, MD, of Wake Forest University in Winston Salem, N.C., argued for a different interpretation of the study’s results.
“The study was beautifully done and it’s an ideal subject for a review, but in some respect the authors missed the opportunity to highlight that there was a spontaneous resolution of stress incontinence symptoms in 66% of women who received diverticulectomy alone,” Dr. Matthews said, adding that this has important implications for medical decision-making and patient choice.
“Morbidity associated with the pubovaginal sling was very low in this study, probably because it was being done by very proficient surgeons, but in many centers it is higher,” Dr. Matthews said. Even with the overall low morbidity seen in the study, “there was still a significant price to pay” for some women in the pubovaginal sling–treated group. “Recurrent UTI can be challenging to manage in the long term, with antibiotic morbidity and significant symptom bother. For the patients with urinary retention, having to manage it with a catheter is a really awful.”
Dr. Matthews said that the study made a case for interval, rather than concomitant, sling placement in women undergoing urethral diverticulectomy. “If you have a patient who insists on addressing symptoms concomitantly, this study provides good information about the long-term likelihood of two complications: urinary retention and recurrent UTI,” she said. “The vast majority of patients that I’m counseling would choose not to have the sling because of these complications.” And while avoiding reoperation may seem a good reason to opt for the PVS during diverticulectomy, the sling was not associated with a decrease in reoperations, compared with diverticulectomy alone, she noted.
“As we can see in the study, diverticulectomy itself has a high impact on stress incontinence,” Dr. Matthews continued. “If you restore the urethral anatomy and wait for the urethra to heal, you have a very good chance that the incontinence resolves.” For those women who do not see resolution and whose symptoms are still severe enough to bother them, “you’d have the flexibility postoperatively to offer not only a pubovaginal sling, but a synthetic mesh sling or a urethral bulking procedure.”
Dr. Bradley and her colleagues reported no relevant financial disclosures. Dr. Matthews disclosed financial support from Boston Scientific and serving as an expert witness for Johnson & Johnson.
SOURCE: Bradley SE et al. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2020. doi: 10.1016/j.ajog.2020.06.002.
FROM AMERICAN JOURNAL OF OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY
Stress incontinence surgery found to improve sexual dysfunction
An analysis of four commonly performed surgical procedures for stress urinary incontinence found that they all improved sexual dysfunction to a similar degree over the course of 24 months.
“There is a growing body of literature concerning female sexual function after treatment for urinary incontinence,” Stephanie M. Glass Clark, MD, of the University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues wrote in a study published in Obstetrics & Gynecology. “Pelvic floor muscle therapy has been shown to improve sexual function as well as urinary incontinence symptoms. Surgical treatment, on the other hand, has had unclear effects on sexual function.”
Dr. Glass Clark and colleagues conducted a combined secondary analysis of the SISTEr (Stress Incontinence Surgical Treatment Efficacy Trial) and TOMUS (Trial of Mid-Urethral Slings) studies. Women in the original trials were randomized to receive surgical treatment for stress urinary incontinence with an autologous fascial sling or Burch colposuspension (SISTEr), or a retropubic or transobturator midurethral sling (TOMUS). Sexual function as assessed by the short version of the Pelvic Organ Prolapse/ Urinary Incontinence Sexual Questionnaire (PISQ-12) was compared between groups at baseline, 12 months, and 24 months.
Of the 924 women included, 249 (27%) had an autologous fascial sling, 239 (26%) underwent Burch colposuspension, 216 (23%) had a retropubic midurethral sling placed, and 220 (24%) had a transobturator midurethral sling placed. The researchers observed no significant differences in mean PISQ-12 scores between the four treatment groups at the time of baseline (P = .07) or at the 12- and 24-month visits (P = .42 and P = .50, respectively). Patients in the two studies showed an overall improvement in sexual function over the 24-month study period.
Specifically, PISQ-12 scores at baseline were 32.6 in the transobturator sling group, 33.1 in the retropubic sling group, 31.9 in the Burch procedure group, and 31.4 in the fascial sling group. At 12 months, the PISQ-12 scores rose to 37.7 in the transobturator sling group, 37.8 in the retropubic sling group, 36.9 in the Burch procedure group, and 37.1 in the fascial sling group. These scores were generally maintained at 24 months (37.7 in the transobturator sling group, 37.1 in the retropubic sling group, 36.7 in the Burch procedure group, and 37.4 in the fascial sling group), and were not statistically different than the scores tabulated at the 12-month follow-up visit (P = .97).
[embed:render:related:node:214714]
“This study and others demonstrate that sexual function improves with surgical improvement of stress incontinence which may suggest a possible association of urinary incontinence and sexual dysfunction,” Dr. Glass Clark and colleagues concluded. “As we continue to explore the complex and multifaceted problem of sexual dysfunction, further evaluation of the effect of pelvic floor disorders – and their treatments – will be important and necessary research.”
The researchers acknowledged certain limitations of the study, including the fact that there was a low degree of diversity among women in the studied trials, which limits the generalizability of the findings. They also pointed out that the PISQ-12 does not address sexual stimulation or nonpenetrative vaginal intercourse. “Additionally, it limits partner-related problems to erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation; some eligible participants may be excluded secondary to sexual preferences given the assumptions inherent to the questionnaire that the partner is male,” they wrote.
This secondary analysis had no outside sources of funding. Dr. Glass Clark reported that she received a travel stipend from the Society of Gynecologic Surgeons, sponsored by OB-STATS. Her coauthors reported having no financial conflicts.
SOURCE: Glass Clark SM et al. Obstet Gynecol 2020;135(2):352-60.
At face value, this is a retrospective analysis of sexual function after surgical correction for urinary incontinence. However, the researchers looked at two well-known and well-respected randomized, controlled trials comparing two types of incontinence procedures head to head, each. So the reader gets an opportunity to examine the influence of four different surgical procedures on sexual function.
Although I expected to see there would be an initial improvement with surgical correction, I did not expect that improvement would be so well maintained over time. There was sustained – and even continued – improvement in many cases, and this suggests a closer link to urinary incontinence that just embarrassment or worry about leakage during sex. I think the “take-home message” is that women who undergo anti-incontinence procedures can expect an improvement in sexual function from baseline, with the majority happening within the first year, and maintain this improvement between years 1 and 2.
I think this is the type of study that we all envisioned being able to do 25 years ago when female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery was in its infancy as an “official” subspecialty, and the National Institutes of Health had developed the Urinary Incontinence Network and the Pelvic Floor Disorders Network. It is gratifying that enough good research has been done to finally enjoy the fruits of their/our labor! The study had large numbers, used a widely known, validated questionnaire, and used data generated from randomized, controlled trials. Although the subjects may not represent all demographics, the study findings can be an aid to most practicing gynecologists to help counsel their patients.
The major limitations of any retrospective study are the inability to go back and ask questions not addressed in the Pelvic Organ Prolapse/Urinary Incontinence Sexual Questionnaire Short Form. For instance, the authors discussed that it might be nice to have an “open-ended” question about why the nonresponders were not having sex.
Patrick Woodman, DO, MS , is a urogynecologist with the Michigan State University, East Lansing. He is also the program director for the obstetrics and gynecology residency for Ascension Macomb-Oakland Hospital, Warren (Michigan) Campus. Dr. Woodman is a member of the Ob.Gyn. News editorial advisory board.
At face value, this is a retrospective analysis of sexual function after surgical correction for urinary incontinence. However, the researchers looked at two well-known and well-respected randomized, controlled trials comparing two types of incontinence procedures head to head, each. So the reader gets an opportunity to examine the influence of four different surgical procedures on sexual function.
Although I expected to see there would be an initial improvement with surgical correction, I did not expect that improvement would be so well maintained over time. There was sustained – and even continued – improvement in many cases, and this suggests a closer link to urinary incontinence that just embarrassment or worry about leakage during sex. I think the “take-home message” is that women who undergo anti-incontinence procedures can expect an improvement in sexual function from baseline, with the majority happening within the first year, and maintain this improvement between years 1 and 2.
I think this is the type of study that we all envisioned being able to do 25 years ago when female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery was in its infancy as an “official” subspecialty, and the National Institutes of Health had developed the Urinary Incontinence Network and the Pelvic Floor Disorders Network. It is gratifying that enough good research has been done to finally enjoy the fruits of their/our labor! The study had large numbers, used a widely known, validated questionnaire, and used data generated from randomized, controlled trials. Although the subjects may not represent all demographics, the study findings can be an aid to most practicing gynecologists to help counsel their patients.
The major limitations of any retrospective study are the inability to go back and ask questions not addressed in the Pelvic Organ Prolapse/Urinary Incontinence Sexual Questionnaire Short Form. For instance, the authors discussed that it might be nice to have an “open-ended” question about why the nonresponders were not having sex.
Patrick Woodman, DO, MS , is a urogynecologist with the Michigan State University, East Lansing. He is also the program director for the obstetrics and gynecology residency for Ascension Macomb-Oakland Hospital, Warren (Michigan) Campus. Dr. Woodman is a member of the Ob.Gyn. News editorial advisory board.
At face value, this is a retrospective analysis of sexual function after surgical correction for urinary incontinence. However, the researchers looked at two well-known and well-respected randomized, controlled trials comparing two types of incontinence procedures head to head, each. So the reader gets an opportunity to examine the influence of four different surgical procedures on sexual function.
Although I expected to see there would be an initial improvement with surgical correction, I did not expect that improvement would be so well maintained over time. There was sustained – and even continued – improvement in many cases, and this suggests a closer link to urinary incontinence that just embarrassment or worry about leakage during sex. I think the “take-home message” is that women who undergo anti-incontinence procedures can expect an improvement in sexual function from baseline, with the majority happening within the first year, and maintain this improvement between years 1 and 2.
I think this is the type of study that we all envisioned being able to do 25 years ago when female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery was in its infancy as an “official” subspecialty, and the National Institutes of Health had developed the Urinary Incontinence Network and the Pelvic Floor Disorders Network. It is gratifying that enough good research has been done to finally enjoy the fruits of their/our labor! The study had large numbers, used a widely known, validated questionnaire, and used data generated from randomized, controlled trials. Although the subjects may not represent all demographics, the study findings can be an aid to most practicing gynecologists to help counsel their patients.
The major limitations of any retrospective study are the inability to go back and ask questions not addressed in the Pelvic Organ Prolapse/Urinary Incontinence Sexual Questionnaire Short Form. For instance, the authors discussed that it might be nice to have an “open-ended” question about why the nonresponders were not having sex.
Patrick Woodman, DO, MS , is a urogynecologist with the Michigan State University, East Lansing. He is also the program director for the obstetrics and gynecology residency for Ascension Macomb-Oakland Hospital, Warren (Michigan) Campus. Dr. Woodman is a member of the Ob.Gyn. News editorial advisory board.
An analysis of four commonly performed surgical procedures for stress urinary incontinence found that they all improved sexual dysfunction to a similar degree over the course of 24 months.
“There is a growing body of literature concerning female sexual function after treatment for urinary incontinence,” Stephanie M. Glass Clark, MD, of the University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues wrote in a study published in Obstetrics & Gynecology. “Pelvic floor muscle therapy has been shown to improve sexual function as well as urinary incontinence symptoms. Surgical treatment, on the other hand, has had unclear effects on sexual function.”
Dr. Glass Clark and colleagues conducted a combined secondary analysis of the SISTEr (Stress Incontinence Surgical Treatment Efficacy Trial) and TOMUS (Trial of Mid-Urethral Slings) studies. Women in the original trials were randomized to receive surgical treatment for stress urinary incontinence with an autologous fascial sling or Burch colposuspension (SISTEr), or a retropubic or transobturator midurethral sling (TOMUS). Sexual function as assessed by the short version of the Pelvic Organ Prolapse/ Urinary Incontinence Sexual Questionnaire (PISQ-12) was compared between groups at baseline, 12 months, and 24 months.
Of the 924 women included, 249 (27%) had an autologous fascial sling, 239 (26%) underwent Burch colposuspension, 216 (23%) had a retropubic midurethral sling placed, and 220 (24%) had a transobturator midurethral sling placed. The researchers observed no significant differences in mean PISQ-12 scores between the four treatment groups at the time of baseline (P = .07) or at the 12- and 24-month visits (P = .42 and P = .50, respectively). Patients in the two studies showed an overall improvement in sexual function over the 24-month study period.
Specifically, PISQ-12 scores at baseline were 32.6 in the transobturator sling group, 33.1 in the retropubic sling group, 31.9 in the Burch procedure group, and 31.4 in the fascial sling group. At 12 months, the PISQ-12 scores rose to 37.7 in the transobturator sling group, 37.8 in the retropubic sling group, 36.9 in the Burch procedure group, and 37.1 in the fascial sling group. These scores were generally maintained at 24 months (37.7 in the transobturator sling group, 37.1 in the retropubic sling group, 36.7 in the Burch procedure group, and 37.4 in the fascial sling group), and were not statistically different than the scores tabulated at the 12-month follow-up visit (P = .97).
[embed:render:related:node:214714]
“This study and others demonstrate that sexual function improves with surgical improvement of stress incontinence which may suggest a possible association of urinary incontinence and sexual dysfunction,” Dr. Glass Clark and colleagues concluded. “As we continue to explore the complex and multifaceted problem of sexual dysfunction, further evaluation of the effect of pelvic floor disorders – and their treatments – will be important and necessary research.”
The researchers acknowledged certain limitations of the study, including the fact that there was a low degree of diversity among women in the studied trials, which limits the generalizability of the findings. They also pointed out that the PISQ-12 does not address sexual stimulation or nonpenetrative vaginal intercourse. “Additionally, it limits partner-related problems to erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation; some eligible participants may be excluded secondary to sexual preferences given the assumptions inherent to the questionnaire that the partner is male,” they wrote.
This secondary analysis had no outside sources of funding. Dr. Glass Clark reported that she received a travel stipend from the Society of Gynecologic Surgeons, sponsored by OB-STATS. Her coauthors reported having no financial conflicts.
SOURCE: Glass Clark SM et al. Obstet Gynecol 2020;135(2):352-60.
An analysis of four commonly performed surgical procedures for stress urinary incontinence found that they all improved sexual dysfunction to a similar degree over the course of 24 months.
“There is a growing body of literature concerning female sexual function after treatment for urinary incontinence,” Stephanie M. Glass Clark, MD, of the University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues wrote in a study published in Obstetrics & Gynecology. “Pelvic floor muscle therapy has been shown to improve sexual function as well as urinary incontinence symptoms. Surgical treatment, on the other hand, has had unclear effects on sexual function.”
Dr. Glass Clark and colleagues conducted a combined secondary analysis of the SISTEr (Stress Incontinence Surgical Treatment Efficacy Trial) and TOMUS (Trial of Mid-Urethral Slings) studies. Women in the original trials were randomized to receive surgical treatment for stress urinary incontinence with an autologous fascial sling or Burch colposuspension (SISTEr), or a retropubic or transobturator midurethral sling (TOMUS). Sexual function as assessed by the short version of the Pelvic Organ Prolapse/ Urinary Incontinence Sexual Questionnaire (PISQ-12) was compared between groups at baseline, 12 months, and 24 months.
Of the 924 women included, 249 (27%) had an autologous fascial sling, 239 (26%) underwent Burch colposuspension, 216 (23%) had a retropubic midurethral sling placed, and 220 (24%) had a transobturator midurethral sling placed. The researchers observed no significant differences in mean PISQ-12 scores between the four treatment groups at the time of baseline (P = .07) or at the 12- and 24-month visits (P = .42 and P = .50, respectively). Patients in the two studies showed an overall improvement in sexual function over the 24-month study period.
Specifically, PISQ-12 scores at baseline were 32.6 in the transobturator sling group, 33.1 in the retropubic sling group, 31.9 in the Burch procedure group, and 31.4 in the fascial sling group. At 12 months, the PISQ-12 scores rose to 37.7 in the transobturator sling group, 37.8 in the retropubic sling group, 36.9 in the Burch procedure group, and 37.1 in the fascial sling group. These scores were generally maintained at 24 months (37.7 in the transobturator sling group, 37.1 in the retropubic sling group, 36.7 in the Burch procedure group, and 37.4 in the fascial sling group), and were not statistically different than the scores tabulated at the 12-month follow-up visit (P = .97).
[embed:render:related:node:214714]
“This study and others demonstrate that sexual function improves with surgical improvement of stress incontinence which may suggest a possible association of urinary incontinence and sexual dysfunction,” Dr. Glass Clark and colleagues concluded. “As we continue to explore the complex and multifaceted problem of sexual dysfunction, further evaluation of the effect of pelvic floor disorders – and their treatments – will be important and necessary research.”
The researchers acknowledged certain limitations of the study, including the fact that there was a low degree of diversity among women in the studied trials, which limits the generalizability of the findings. They also pointed out that the PISQ-12 does not address sexual stimulation or nonpenetrative vaginal intercourse. “Additionally, it limits partner-related problems to erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation; some eligible participants may be excluded secondary to sexual preferences given the assumptions inherent to the questionnaire that the partner is male,” they wrote.
This secondary analysis had no outside sources of funding. Dr. Glass Clark reported that she received a travel stipend from the Society of Gynecologic Surgeons, sponsored by OB-STATS. Her coauthors reported having no financial conflicts.
SOURCE: Glass Clark SM et al. Obstet Gynecol 2020;135(2):352-60.
FROM OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY
Commentary: Should AVFs be ligated after kidney transplant?
Hemodynamic complications of arteriovenous (AV) access are uncommon but can be potentially life threatening. Fistulas and grafts can cause a decrease in systemic vascular resistance and secondary increase in cardiac output in patients who may already have myocardial dysfunction secondary to their end-stage renal disease.1 This increased cardiac output is usually insignificant but in rare cases can result in clinically significant cardiac failure. Patients with high-output fistulas with volume flow greater than 2 L/min may be at increased risk of heart failure but volume flow less than 2 L/min does not preclude this complication.2
In patients with AV access–related heart failure, optimal medical management and reduction of fistula flow or ligation of the dialysis access should be considered. If continued hemodialysis is necessary, loss of a functioning dialysis access is problematic and difficult management decisions must be made. Following successful renal transplantation, ligation of vascular access in the presence of symptomatic heart failure may represent a straightforward decision. Nonetheless, there is no clear consensus of how to manage patent fistulas or grafts in patients following renal transplantation in the absence of significant cardiac symptoms with particular concern to the important issues of transplant survival and long-term cardiac prognosis. Yaffe and Greenstein3 recommend preservation of almost all fistulas after transplantation in the absence of significant complications such as venous hypertension, pseudoaneurysm, significant high-output cardiac failure or hand ischemia. They recommend taking into account the 10-year adjusted renal transplantation graft survival rates and the relative paucity of donors, recognizing the possibility that the patient may have to return to dialysis at some point in the future. They also reference the lack of information regarding the beneficial impact of fistula ligation on cardiac morphology and function as a rationale for access preservation.
A recent presentation at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions by Michael B. Stokes, MD,4 from the department of cardiology at Royal Adelaide Hospital in Australia, suggests that cardiovascular disease is responsible for 40% of deaths among kidney transplant recipients and that left ventricular (LV) mass is strongly associated with cardiovascular mortality.
He states that, although there is no guideline consensus on the management of an AV fistula following successful renal transplantation, the fistula continues to contribute adversely to cardiac remodeling and function. The lack of previous randomized controlled trials in this area led Dr. Stokes and his colleagues to randomly assign 64 patients at least 1 year following successful kidney transplantation with stable renal function and a functioning AV fistula to either fistula ligation or no intervention. All patients underwent cardiac MRI at baseline and 6 months.
The primary endpoint of decrease in LV mass at 6 months was significant in the ligation group but not in the control group. The ligation group also had significant decrease in LV end diastolic volume, LV end systolic volume, and multiple other parameters. In addition, NT-proBNP levels and left atrial volume were significantly reduced in the ligation group when compared with the control group. Complications in the ligation group included six patients with thrombosis of their fistula vein and two infections, all of which resolved with outpatient anti-inflammatory or antimicrobial therapy.
Dr. Stokes believes that control patients in his study face “persisting and substantial deleterious cardiac remodeling” and that “further investigation would clarify the impact of AV fistula ligation on clinical outcomes following kidney transplantation.”
I believe this is important information and represents the first randomized controlled data regarding the long-term adverse cardiac effects of a patent fistula after renal transplantation. Unfortunately, information regarding baseline fistula volume flow is not provided in this abstract. As discussed earlier, patients with high-flow fistulas may be at increased risk of heart failure and hemodynamic data can be critical in establishing an algorithm for managing these challenging patients.
Ligation of a functioning and asymptomatic access in a patient with a successful renal transplant should be recommended only after informed discussion with the patient weighing the ongoing potential negative effects on cardiac function of continued access patency versus the potential need for future hemodialysis. Dr. Stokes presents interesting data that must be considered in this controversy. I believe that, in the absence of a universally applicable algorithm, the clinical decision to recommend AV fistula ligation after successful kidney transplantation should be individualized and based on ongoing assessment of cardiac and renal function and fistula complications and hemodynamics.
References
1. Eur Heart J 2017;38:1913-23.
2. Nephrol Dial Transplant 2008;23:282-7.
3. J Vasc Access 2012;13:405-8.
4. Stokes MB, et al. LBS.05 – Late Breaking Clinical Trial: Hot News in HF. Presented at American Heart Association Scientific Sessions. 2018 Nov 10-12. Chicago.
Larry A. Scher, MD, is a vascular surgeon at the Montefiore Greene Medical Arts Pavilion, New York, and an associate medical editor for Vascular Specialist.
Hemodynamic complications of arteriovenous (AV) access are uncommon but can be potentially life threatening. Fistulas and grafts can cause a decrease in systemic vascular resistance and secondary increase in cardiac output in patients who may already have myocardial dysfunction secondary to their end-stage renal disease.1 This increased cardiac output is usually insignificant but in rare cases can result in clinically significant cardiac failure. Patients with high-output fistulas with volume flow greater than 2 L/min may be at increased risk of heart failure but volume flow less than 2 L/min does not preclude this complication.2
In patients with AV access–related heart failure, optimal medical management and reduction of fistula flow or ligation of the dialysis access should be considered. If continued hemodialysis is necessary, loss of a functioning dialysis access is problematic and difficult management decisions must be made. Following successful renal transplantation, ligation of vascular access in the presence of symptomatic heart failure may represent a straightforward decision. Nonetheless, there is no clear consensus of how to manage patent fistulas or grafts in patients following renal transplantation in the absence of significant cardiac symptoms with particular concern to the important issues of transplant survival and long-term cardiac prognosis. Yaffe and Greenstein3 recommend preservation of almost all fistulas after transplantation in the absence of significant complications such as venous hypertension, pseudoaneurysm, significant high-output cardiac failure or hand ischemia. They recommend taking into account the 10-year adjusted renal transplantation graft survival rates and the relative paucity of donors, recognizing the possibility that the patient may have to return to dialysis at some point in the future. They also reference the lack of information regarding the beneficial impact of fistula ligation on cardiac morphology and function as a rationale for access preservation.
A recent presentation at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions by Michael B. Stokes, MD,4 from the department of cardiology at Royal Adelaide Hospital in Australia, suggests that cardiovascular disease is responsible for 40% of deaths among kidney transplant recipients and that left ventricular (LV) mass is strongly associated with cardiovascular mortality.
He states that, although there is no guideline consensus on the management of an AV fistula following successful renal transplantation, the fistula continues to contribute adversely to cardiac remodeling and function. The lack of previous randomized controlled trials in this area led Dr. Stokes and his colleagues to randomly assign 64 patients at least 1 year following successful kidney transplantation with stable renal function and a functioning AV fistula to either fistula ligation or no intervention. All patients underwent cardiac MRI at baseline and 6 months.
The primary endpoint of decrease in LV mass at 6 months was significant in the ligation group but not in the control group. The ligation group also had significant decrease in LV end diastolic volume, LV end systolic volume, and multiple other parameters. In addition, NT-proBNP levels and left atrial volume were significantly reduced in the ligation group when compared with the control group. Complications in the ligation group included six patients with thrombosis of their fistula vein and two infections, all of which resolved with outpatient anti-inflammatory or antimicrobial therapy.
Dr. Stokes believes that control patients in his study face “persisting and substantial deleterious cardiac remodeling” and that “further investigation would clarify the impact of AV fistula ligation on clinical outcomes following kidney transplantation.”
I believe this is important information and represents the first randomized controlled data regarding the long-term adverse cardiac effects of a patent fistula after renal transplantation. Unfortunately, information regarding baseline fistula volume flow is not provided in this abstract. As discussed earlier, patients with high-flow fistulas may be at increased risk of heart failure and hemodynamic data can be critical in establishing an algorithm for managing these challenging patients.
Ligation of a functioning and asymptomatic access in a patient with a successful renal transplant should be recommended only after informed discussion with the patient weighing the ongoing potential negative effects on cardiac function of continued access patency versus the potential need for future hemodialysis. Dr. Stokes presents interesting data that must be considered in this controversy. I believe that, in the absence of a universally applicable algorithm, the clinical decision to recommend AV fistula ligation after successful kidney transplantation should be individualized and based on ongoing assessment of cardiac and renal function and fistula complications and hemodynamics.
References
1. Eur Heart J 2017;38:1913-23.
2. Nephrol Dial Transplant 2008;23:282-7.
3. J Vasc Access 2012;13:405-8.
4. Stokes MB, et al. LBS.05 – Late Breaking Clinical Trial: Hot News in HF. Presented at American Heart Association Scientific Sessions. 2018 Nov 10-12. Chicago.
Larry A. Scher, MD, is a vascular surgeon at the Montefiore Greene Medical Arts Pavilion, New York, and an associate medical editor for Vascular Specialist.
Hemodynamic complications of arteriovenous (AV) access are uncommon but can be potentially life threatening. Fistulas and grafts can cause a decrease in systemic vascular resistance and secondary increase in cardiac output in patients who may already have myocardial dysfunction secondary to their end-stage renal disease.1 This increased cardiac output is usually insignificant but in rare cases can result in clinically significant cardiac failure. Patients with high-output fistulas with volume flow greater than 2 L/min may be at increased risk of heart failure but volume flow less than 2 L/min does not preclude this complication.2
In patients with AV access–related heart failure, optimal medical management and reduction of fistula flow or ligation of the dialysis access should be considered. If continued hemodialysis is necessary, loss of a functioning dialysis access is problematic and difficult management decisions must be made. Following successful renal transplantation, ligation of vascular access in the presence of symptomatic heart failure may represent a straightforward decision. Nonetheless, there is no clear consensus of how to manage patent fistulas or grafts in patients following renal transplantation in the absence of significant cardiac symptoms with particular concern to the important issues of transplant survival and long-term cardiac prognosis. Yaffe and Greenstein3 recommend preservation of almost all fistulas after transplantation in the absence of significant complications such as venous hypertension, pseudoaneurysm, significant high-output cardiac failure or hand ischemia. They recommend taking into account the 10-year adjusted renal transplantation graft survival rates and the relative paucity of donors, recognizing the possibility that the patient may have to return to dialysis at some point in the future. They also reference the lack of information regarding the beneficial impact of fistula ligation on cardiac morphology and function as a rationale for access preservation.
A recent presentation at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions by Michael B. Stokes, MD,4 from the department of cardiology at Royal Adelaide Hospital in Australia, suggests that cardiovascular disease is responsible for 40% of deaths among kidney transplant recipients and that left ventricular (LV) mass is strongly associated with cardiovascular mortality.
He states that, although there is no guideline consensus on the management of an AV fistula following successful renal transplantation, the fistula continues to contribute adversely to cardiac remodeling and function. The lack of previous randomized controlled trials in this area led Dr. Stokes and his colleagues to randomly assign 64 patients at least 1 year following successful kidney transplantation with stable renal function and a functioning AV fistula to either fistula ligation or no intervention. All patients underwent cardiac MRI at baseline and 6 months.
The primary endpoint of decrease in LV mass at 6 months was significant in the ligation group but not in the control group. The ligation group also had significant decrease in LV end diastolic volume, LV end systolic volume, and multiple other parameters. In addition, NT-proBNP levels and left atrial volume were significantly reduced in the ligation group when compared with the control group. Complications in the ligation group included six patients with thrombosis of their fistula vein and two infections, all of which resolved with outpatient anti-inflammatory or antimicrobial therapy.
Dr. Stokes believes that control patients in his study face “persisting and substantial deleterious cardiac remodeling” and that “further investigation would clarify the impact of AV fistula ligation on clinical outcomes following kidney transplantation.”
I believe this is important information and represents the first randomized controlled data regarding the long-term adverse cardiac effects of a patent fistula after renal transplantation. Unfortunately, information regarding baseline fistula volume flow is not provided in this abstract. As discussed earlier, patients with high-flow fistulas may be at increased risk of heart failure and hemodynamic data can be critical in establishing an algorithm for managing these challenging patients.
Ligation of a functioning and asymptomatic access in a patient with a successful renal transplant should be recommended only after informed discussion with the patient weighing the ongoing potential negative effects on cardiac function of continued access patency versus the potential need for future hemodialysis. Dr. Stokes presents interesting data that must be considered in this controversy. I believe that, in the absence of a universally applicable algorithm, the clinical decision to recommend AV fistula ligation after successful kidney transplantation should be individualized and based on ongoing assessment of cardiac and renal function and fistula complications and hemodynamics.
References
1. Eur Heart J 2017;38:1913-23.
2. Nephrol Dial Transplant 2008;23:282-7.
3. J Vasc Access 2012;13:405-8.
4. Stokes MB, et al. LBS.05 – Late Breaking Clinical Trial: Hot News in HF. Presented at American Heart Association Scientific Sessions. 2018 Nov 10-12. Chicago.
Larry A. Scher, MD, is a vascular surgeon at the Montefiore Greene Medical Arts Pavilion, New York, and an associate medical editor for Vascular Specialist.
Clinical trial: Robotic or open radical cystectomy in treating patients with bladder cancer
Patients who are recruited will undergo either open or robotic radical cystectomy. In open radical cystectomy, the surgeon cuts into the lower abdomen to expose the urinary tract in order to remove the bladder. In robotic radical cystectomy, small cuts are made in the abdomen into which a scope is inserted; with robotic help, the surgeon removes the bladder. It is currently unknown which approach results in fewer complications, better quality of life, and faster recovery time.
Patients are eligible for the study if they are indicated for radical cystectomy, have Tis-T3 urothelial cancer, and meet surgical candidate criteria. Exclusion factors include having a bulky lymphadenopathy, prior pelvic radiation, or uncontrolled coagulopathy.
The primary outcome measure is change in patient-reported quality of life, as reported using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC)-QLQ-C30, 1 month post surgery. The secondary outcome measure is change in erectile dysfunction, as measured by the Sexual Health Inventory For Men score, over a follow-up of up to 12 months.
Recruitment ends on Oct. 12, 2019, and the estimated study completion date is Oct. 12, 2020. About 208 participants are expected to be included.
Find more information on the study page at Clinicaltrials.gov.
Patients who are recruited will undergo either open or robotic radical cystectomy. In open radical cystectomy, the surgeon cuts into the lower abdomen to expose the urinary tract in order to remove the bladder. In robotic radical cystectomy, small cuts are made in the abdomen into which a scope is inserted; with robotic help, the surgeon removes the bladder. It is currently unknown which approach results in fewer complications, better quality of life, and faster recovery time.
Patients are eligible for the study if they are indicated for radical cystectomy, have Tis-T3 urothelial cancer, and meet surgical candidate criteria. Exclusion factors include having a bulky lymphadenopathy, prior pelvic radiation, or uncontrolled coagulopathy.
The primary outcome measure is change in patient-reported quality of life, as reported using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC)-QLQ-C30, 1 month post surgery. The secondary outcome measure is change in erectile dysfunction, as measured by the Sexual Health Inventory For Men score, over a follow-up of up to 12 months.
Recruitment ends on Oct. 12, 2019, and the estimated study completion date is Oct. 12, 2020. About 208 participants are expected to be included.
Find more information on the study page at Clinicaltrials.gov.
Patients who are recruited will undergo either open or robotic radical cystectomy. In open radical cystectomy, the surgeon cuts into the lower abdomen to expose the urinary tract in order to remove the bladder. In robotic radical cystectomy, small cuts are made in the abdomen into which a scope is inserted; with robotic help, the surgeon removes the bladder. It is currently unknown which approach results in fewer complications, better quality of life, and faster recovery time.
Patients are eligible for the study if they are indicated for radical cystectomy, have Tis-T3 urothelial cancer, and meet surgical candidate criteria. Exclusion factors include having a bulky lymphadenopathy, prior pelvic radiation, or uncontrolled coagulopathy.
The primary outcome measure is change in patient-reported quality of life, as reported using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC)-QLQ-C30, 1 month post surgery. The secondary outcome measure is change in erectile dysfunction, as measured by the Sexual Health Inventory For Men score, over a follow-up of up to 12 months.
Recruitment ends on Oct. 12, 2019, and the estimated study completion date is Oct. 12, 2020. About 208 participants are expected to be included.
Find more information on the study page at Clinicaltrials.gov.
Gap in care: Female patients with incontinence
LAS VEGAS – A pelvic surgeon brought a bold message to a gathering of gynecologists: There’s a great gap in American care for pelvic floor disorders such as urinary incontinence, and they’re the right physicians to make a difference by treating these common conditions.
“There are never going to be enough specialists to deal with these problems. This is a natural progression for many of you,” said urogynecologist and pelvic surgeon Mickey M. Karram, MD, in a joint presentation at the Pelvic Anatomy and Gynecologic Surgery Symposium. In fact, he said, “there’s so much disease out there to fix that you may become more overwhelmed.”
Dr. Karram, who has offices in Cincinnati, Beverly Hills, and Orange County, Calif., spoke about female urinary incontinence with obstetrician-gynecologist Beri M. Ridgeway, MD, of Cleveland Clinic. They offered these tips:
Test for stress incontinence
Dr. Karram recommends using a “quick and easy” cystometrogram (CMG) test to “corroborate or refute what the patient thinks is going on” in regard to urinary function. “With this simple test, you’ll get a clear understanding of sensation [to urinate] and of what their fullness and capacity numbers are,” he said. And if you have the patient cough or strain during the test, “you should be able to duplicate a sign of stress incontinence 90% of the time.”
If patients don’t leak when they take this test, there may be another problem such as overactive bladder, a condition that can’t be duplicated via the test, he said.
Ask the right questions
When it comes to identifying when they have urinary difficulties, some patients “say yes to every question we ask,” said Dr. Ridgeway, and they may not be able to distinguish between urgency and leakage.
A better approach is to ask women to provide specific examples of when they have continence issues, she said. It’s also useful to ask patients about what bothers them the most if they have multiple symptoms: Is it urgency (“Gotta go; gotta go”)? Leakage during certain situations like coughing and laughing? “That helps me decide how to go about treating them first and foremost,” she said. “It doesn’t mean you won’t treat both [problems], but it really gives you a reference point of where to start.”
Research suggests that women tend to be more bothered by urge incontinence than stress incontinence, she said, because they can regulate their activities or avoid the stress form.
Beware of acute incontinence cases
“If a woman walks in and says ‘Everything was great until a week or two ago, but now I’m living in pads,’ it could be a fecal impaction or a pelvic mass,” Dr. Karram said at the meeting jointly provided by Global Academy for Medical Education and the University of Cincinnati. Global Academy and this news organization are owned by the same company.
Discuss the many treatment options
In some cases of incontinence, Dr. Ridgeway said she’ll mention “the array of treatment options, such as pelvic floor physical therapy, bladder retraining, vaginal estrogen, medications, and Botox.”
She added: “I explain that we’ll work together, and sometimes it will take a couple tries, or we’ll try a couple things at once.”
Dr. Ridgeway disclosed consulting for Coloplast and serving as an independent contractor (legal) for Ethicon. Dr. Karram disclosed speaking for Allergan, Astellas Pharma, Coloplast, and Cynosure/Hologic; consulting for Coloplast and Cynosure/Hologic; and receiving royalties from BihlerMed.
LAS VEGAS – A pelvic surgeon brought a bold message to a gathering of gynecologists: There’s a great gap in American care for pelvic floor disorders such as urinary incontinence, and they’re the right physicians to make a difference by treating these common conditions.
“There are never going to be enough specialists to deal with these problems. This is a natural progression for many of you,” said urogynecologist and pelvic surgeon Mickey M. Karram, MD, in a joint presentation at the Pelvic Anatomy and Gynecologic Surgery Symposium. In fact, he said, “there’s so much disease out there to fix that you may become more overwhelmed.”
Dr. Karram, who has offices in Cincinnati, Beverly Hills, and Orange County, Calif., spoke about female urinary incontinence with obstetrician-gynecologist Beri M. Ridgeway, MD, of Cleveland Clinic. They offered these tips:
Test for stress incontinence
Dr. Karram recommends using a “quick and easy” cystometrogram (CMG) test to “corroborate or refute what the patient thinks is going on” in regard to urinary function. “With this simple test, you’ll get a clear understanding of sensation [to urinate] and of what their fullness and capacity numbers are,” he said. And if you have the patient cough or strain during the test, “you should be able to duplicate a sign of stress incontinence 90% of the time.”
If patients don’t leak when they take this test, there may be another problem such as overactive bladder, a condition that can’t be duplicated via the test, he said.
Ask the right questions
When it comes to identifying when they have urinary difficulties, some patients “say yes to every question we ask,” said Dr. Ridgeway, and they may not be able to distinguish between urgency and leakage.
A better approach is to ask women to provide specific examples of when they have continence issues, she said. It’s also useful to ask patients about what bothers them the most if they have multiple symptoms: Is it urgency (“Gotta go; gotta go”)? Leakage during certain situations like coughing and laughing? “That helps me decide how to go about treating them first and foremost,” she said. “It doesn’t mean you won’t treat both [problems], but it really gives you a reference point of where to start.”
Research suggests that women tend to be more bothered by urge incontinence than stress incontinence, she said, because they can regulate their activities or avoid the stress form.
Beware of acute incontinence cases
“If a woman walks in and says ‘Everything was great until a week or two ago, but now I’m living in pads,’ it could be a fecal impaction or a pelvic mass,” Dr. Karram said at the meeting jointly provided by Global Academy for Medical Education and the University of Cincinnati. Global Academy and this news organization are owned by the same company.
Discuss the many treatment options
In some cases of incontinence, Dr. Ridgeway said she’ll mention “the array of treatment options, such as pelvic floor physical therapy, bladder retraining, vaginal estrogen, medications, and Botox.”
She added: “I explain that we’ll work together, and sometimes it will take a couple tries, or we’ll try a couple things at once.”
Dr. Ridgeway disclosed consulting for Coloplast and serving as an independent contractor (legal) for Ethicon. Dr. Karram disclosed speaking for Allergan, Astellas Pharma, Coloplast, and Cynosure/Hologic; consulting for Coloplast and Cynosure/Hologic; and receiving royalties from BihlerMed.
LAS VEGAS – A pelvic surgeon brought a bold message to a gathering of gynecologists: There’s a great gap in American care for pelvic floor disorders such as urinary incontinence, and they’re the right physicians to make a difference by treating these common conditions.
“There are never going to be enough specialists to deal with these problems. This is a natural progression for many of you,” said urogynecologist and pelvic surgeon Mickey M. Karram, MD, in a joint presentation at the Pelvic Anatomy and Gynecologic Surgery Symposium. In fact, he said, “there’s so much disease out there to fix that you may become more overwhelmed.”
Dr. Karram, who has offices in Cincinnati, Beverly Hills, and Orange County, Calif., spoke about female urinary incontinence with obstetrician-gynecologist Beri M. Ridgeway, MD, of Cleveland Clinic. They offered these tips:
Test for stress incontinence
Dr. Karram recommends using a “quick and easy” cystometrogram (CMG) test to “corroborate or refute what the patient thinks is going on” in regard to urinary function. “With this simple test, you’ll get a clear understanding of sensation [to urinate] and of what their fullness and capacity numbers are,” he said. And if you have the patient cough or strain during the test, “you should be able to duplicate a sign of stress incontinence 90% of the time.”
If patients don’t leak when they take this test, there may be another problem such as overactive bladder, a condition that can’t be duplicated via the test, he said.
Ask the right questions
When it comes to identifying when they have urinary difficulties, some patients “say yes to every question we ask,” said Dr. Ridgeway, and they may not be able to distinguish between urgency and leakage.
A better approach is to ask women to provide specific examples of when they have continence issues, she said. It’s also useful to ask patients about what bothers them the most if they have multiple symptoms: Is it urgency (“Gotta go; gotta go”)? Leakage during certain situations like coughing and laughing? “That helps me decide how to go about treating them first and foremost,” she said. “It doesn’t mean you won’t treat both [problems], but it really gives you a reference point of where to start.”
Research suggests that women tend to be more bothered by urge incontinence than stress incontinence, she said, because they can regulate their activities or avoid the stress form.
Beware of acute incontinence cases
“If a woman walks in and says ‘Everything was great until a week or two ago, but now I’m living in pads,’ it could be a fecal impaction or a pelvic mass,” Dr. Karram said at the meeting jointly provided by Global Academy for Medical Education and the University of Cincinnati. Global Academy and this news organization are owned by the same company.
Discuss the many treatment options
In some cases of incontinence, Dr. Ridgeway said she’ll mention “the array of treatment options, such as pelvic floor physical therapy, bladder retraining, vaginal estrogen, medications, and Botox.”
She added: “I explain that we’ll work together, and sometimes it will take a couple tries, or we’ll try a couple things at once.”
Dr. Ridgeway disclosed consulting for Coloplast and serving as an independent contractor (legal) for Ethicon. Dr. Karram disclosed speaking for Allergan, Astellas Pharma, Coloplast, and Cynosure/Hologic; consulting for Coloplast and Cynosure/Hologic; and receiving royalties from BihlerMed.
EXPERT ANALYSIS FROM PAGS
