Surgery (Austin & Northern Health) - Research Publications

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    Declining use of radical prostatectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy despite more robotics: National population data over 15 years
    Roberts, MJ ; Papa, N ; Perera, M ; Joshi, A ; Scott, S ; Bolton, D ; Lawrentschuk, N ; Yaxley, J (WILEY, 2020-04)
    AIM: To describe national surgical patterns of prostate cancer (PCa) care considering radical prostatectomy with or without pelvic lymphadenectomy and consideration of robotic-assisted techniques. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of publicly accessible Medicare claims data was performed for the period 2001-2016 and included patients undergoing radical prostatectomy with or without pelvic lymphadenectomy relative to total and PCa-specific populations among men aged 45-84 years. Proportion of cases performed robotically was considered. RESULTS: Total procedures performed increased from 2001, peaked in 2009 and subsequently decreased until 2016. Since 2009, the age-specific rate of surgery in men aged 75-84 increased by 2.3-fold, whereas the rates for men aged 55-64 and 45-54 reduced by 44% and 55%, respectively. Rates of concurrent pelvic lymphadenectomy fell until 2009 with subsequent stabilization (ratio 1.05-1.14) through to 2016. Significant regional practice patterns were observed, as was an increasing trend toward a robotic-assisted laparoscopic approach, comprising more than 80% of radical prostatectomies in 2016. CONCLUSION: Since the peak in 2009, radical prostatectomy is performed less in men <65 years and more in men ≥65 years. An increasing proportion of cases omit concurrent pelvic lymphadenectomy and are performed robotically.
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    Mesenteric metastases from mature teratoma of the testis: A case report
    Loh, Z ; Manning, TG ; O'Brien, JS ; Perera, M ; Lawrentschuk, N (ELSEVIER SINGAPORE PTE LTD, 2020-07)
    Metastatic spread of testicular cancer has been well documented, with 95% of cases involving para-aortic retroperitoneal lymph nodes. Mesenteric lymphatic basins do not lie within the canonical drainage pathway of the testes and represent a rare site of metastasis. Various mechanisms of spread to the mesentery have been described, including direct extension and haematogenous dissemination. We present a case of a previously-well 43-year-old man who presented with right scrotal discomfort and intermittent lower back pain, who was found to have mesenteric metastases from a non-seminomatous germ cell tumour of the testis. Managing lymphadenopathy that lies outside of standard resection templates remains a complex surgical challenge. Here we present the first case in the English medical literature with co-existing supradiaphragmatic axillary and mediastinal nodal disease.
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    Scoping review: hotspots for COVID-19 urological research: what is being published and from where?
    Qu, LG ; Perera, M ; Lawrentschuk, N ; Umbas, R ; Klotz, L (SPRINGER, 2021-09)
    PURPOSE: Contemporary, original research should be utilised to inform guidelines in urology relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. This comprehensive review aimed to: identify all up-to-date original publications relating to urology and COVID-19, characterise where publications were from, and outline what topics were investigated. METHODS: This review utilised a search strategy that assessed five electronic databases, additional grey literature, and global trial registries. All current published, in-press, and pre-print manuscripts were included. Eligible studies were required to be original research articles of any study design, reporting on COVID-19 or urology, in any of study population, intervention, comparison, or outcomes. Included studies were reported in a narrative synthesis format. Data were summarised according to primary reported outcome topic. A world heatmap was generated to represent where included studies originated from. RESULTS: Of the 6617 search results, 48 studies met final inclusion criteria, including 8 pre-prints and 7 ongoing studies from online registries. These studies originated from ten countries according to first author affiliation. Most studies originated from China (n = 13), followed by Italy (n = 12) and USA (n = 11). Topics of the study included pathophysiological, administrative, and clinical fields: translational (n = 14), COVID-19-related outcomes (n = 5), urology training (n = 4), telemedicine (n = 7), equipment and safety (n = 2), urology in general (n = 4), uro-oncology (n = 3), urolithiasis (n = 1), and kidney transplantation (n = 8). CONCLUSION: This review has outlined available original research relevant to COVID-19 and urology from the international community. This summary may serve as a guide for future research priorities in this area.
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    'Prostate Cancer' Information on the Internet: Fact or Fiction?
    Moolla, Y ; Adam, A ; Perera, M ; Lawrentschuk, N (Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health), 2020-01)
    BACKGROUND/AIMS: In today's information era, patients often seek information regarding health using the internet. We assessed reliability and validity of internet information regarding 'prostate cancer'. METHODS: Search term 'prostate cancer' used on Google website (June 2017). Critical analysis was performed on first 100 hits using JAMA benchmarks, DISCERN score, Health on the Net. RESULTS: 33 500 000 hits returned. Top 100 hits were critically analyzed. Ten links [duplicate links (n = 7), book reviews (n = 1), dead sites (n = 2)] were excluded, therefore 90 were analyzed. Subcategories assessed included: commercial (53.33%), university/medical center (24.44%), government (13.33%); non-governmental/ non-profit organizations (8.89%). Sub-type of information content assessed included: factual (74.44%), clinical trials (18.89%); stories (5.56%); question and answer (1.11%). Website rated as HONcode seal positive (14,44%) or seal negative (85,56%). Website content based on JAMA benchmarks: 0 benchmarks (4.44%), 1 benchmark (16.67%), 2 benchmarks (34.44%), 3 benchmarks (27.78%), 4 benchmarks (16.67%). DISCERN score rated: 'low' score (16-32) = 12 websites (13.33%), 'moderate' score (33-64 points) = 68 websites (75.56%), 'high' score (≥ 65 points) = 10 websites (11.11%). CONCLUSION: Critical assessment of 'Prostate Cancer' information on the internet, showed that overall quality was observed to be accurate, however majority of individual websites are unreliable as a source of information by itself for patients. Doctors and patients need to be aware of this 'quality vs quantity' discrepancy when sourcing PCa information on the internet.
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    Patterns of primary staging for newly diagnosed prostate cancer in the era of prostate specific membrane antigen positron emission tomography: A population-based analysis
    Papa, N ; Perera, M ; Murphy, DG ; Lawrentschuk, N ; Evans, M ; Millar, JL ; Bolton, D (WILEY, 2021-10)
    INTRODUCTION: There has been a growing body of evidence highlighting the improved sensitivity and specificity for prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) positron emission tomography (PET) in advanced prostate cancer imaging. We aimed to assess prostate cancer staging practice patterns in Australia using population-based data. SUBJECT AND METHODS: We extracted data on men diagnosed with prostate cancer between October 2016 and December 2018 from the Prostate Cancer Outcomes Registry-Victoria (PCOR-Vic). We evaluated trends and comparisons between patients receiving PET/CT (with or without conventional imaging (CImg)), and CImg alone, and analysed imaging modality as predictor of clinical regional node positive disease (cN1 vs cN0/X), metastatic disease (cM1 vs cM0/X), and treatment received. RESULTS: In total, 6139 patients in the registry had either a staging PET scan (n = 889, 14%), CImg without PET scan (n = 2464, 40%), or no recorded PET or CImg (n = 2786, 45%). The proportion of allimaged patients who received staging PET increased from 19% to 36% from the first to last three-month period, and in the high-risk category the increase was 23-43%. After adjustment for grade group, PET vs CImg-only patients were observed to have a higher proportion of cN1 disease (OR = 2.46, 95% CI: 1.90-3.20) but not cM1 disease (OR = 1.10, 95% CI: 0.84-1.44). CONCLUSIONS: Our registry data highlights the rapid uptake of PET imaging, particularly in high-risk disease. Based on this data, we highlight the increased diagnosis of nodal disease, thus potentially optimizing patient selection prior to definitive treatment for prostate cancer.