R Justin Davies

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · Cambridge Colorectal Unit (Addenbrooke's Hospital)

Background: There is widespread concern that treatment with biologics agents may be associated

Aim Despite advancements in therapeutic options for Crohn's disease (CD), strictureplasty is a mainstay bowel‐preserving technique for small bowel CD. We sought to audit international practice across three high‐volume centres since the widespread use of biologic medication. Methods A retrospective audit was performed for all strictureplasties unde...

The incidence and prevalence of syphilis are rising worldwide. Rectal syphilis is a rare condition with few reported cases in the literature and therefore often missed from differential diagnosis of atypical anorectal ulceration. We report a case of a 64-year-old male who presented with change in the bowel habit and a palpable rectal mass on examin...

Introduction: One of the most common causes of bleeding during pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) is dissection of the pancreatic head from the superior mesenteric vein (SMV) and superior mesenteric artery (SMA). Knowledge of the anatomical variants of the veins draining the proximal jejunum may allow a better control of bleeding during detachment of th...

Aim This study aimed to evaluate the impact of the WSES-AAST guidelines in clinical practice and to investigate the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of emergency surgeons in managing the complications of ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD). Methods The MIBODI survey is a cross-sectional study among WSES members designed as an inter...

Inflammatory bowel disease is a chronic autoimmune disorder of multifactorial aetiology affecting the gastrointestinal tract. The most common forms of inflammatory bowel disease are Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Crohn’s disease causes multifocal transmural inflammation of the entire gastrointestinal tract, which can lead to stricture and/...

Introduction Trauma contributes to the greatest loss of disability-adjusted life-years for adolescents and young adults worldwide. In the context of global abdominal trauma, the trauma laparotomy is the most commonly performed operation. Variation likely exists in how these patients are managed and their subsequent outcomes, yet very little global...

Background Despite advances and improvements in the management of surgical patients, emergency and trauma surgery is associated with high morbidity and mortality. This may be due in part to delays in definitive surgical management in the operating room (OR). There is a lack of studies focused on OR prioritization and resource allocation in emergenc...

Background: Fredet's fascia represents a crucial landmark for vascular surgical anatomy, especially in minimally invasive complete mesocolic excision (CME) for right-sided colon adenocarcinoma. Fredet's fascia allows access to the gastrocolic trunk of Henle (GCTH), the most critical step in both open and minimally invasive right-sided CME techniqu...

BACKGROUND: The CovidSurg-Cancer Consortium aimed to explore the impact of COVID-19 in surgical patients and services for solid cancers at the start of the pandemic. The CovidSurg-Gynecologic Oncology Cancer subgroup was particularly concerned about the magnitude of adverse outcomes caused by the disrupted surgical gynecologic cancer care during th...

Background: Reconstruction techniques after subtotal colectomy (STC) and end ileostomy for ulcerative colitis (UC), include ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA), ileorectal anastomosis (IRA) and continent ileostomy. Aim: To assess surgical strategies and outcomes after subtotal colectomy for UC by calculating the proportions of patients who had furt...

Purpose Complete mesocolic excision improves lymphadenectomy for right hemicolectomy and respects the embryological planes. However, its effect on cancer-free and overall survival is questioned. Therefore, we aimed to determine the potential benefits of the technique by performing a systematic review of the literature and meta-analysis of the avail...

Background: Knowledge of vascular anatomy and its possible variations is essential for performing embolization or revascularization procedures and complex surgery in the pelvis. The obturator artery (OA) is a branch of the anterior division of the internal iliac artery (IIA), and it has the highest frequency of variation among branches of the inte...

Background: This systematic review aims to investigate whether percutaneous transhepatic gallbladder biliary drainage (PTGBD) is superior to emergency cholecystectomy (EC) as a definitive treatment in high-risk patients with acute cholecystitis (AC). Material and methods: A systematic literature search was performed until December 2022 using the...

Objective The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to summarize the current scientific evidence regarding the impact of the level of inferior mesenteric artery (IMA) ligation on post-operative and oncological outcomes in rectal cancer surgery. Methods We conducted a systematic review of the literature up to 06 September 2022. Include...

Laparotomy incisions provide easy and rapid access to the peritoneal cavity in case of emergency surgery. Incisional hernia (IH) is a late manifestation of the failure of abdominal wall closure and represents frequent complication of any abdominal incision: IHs can cause pain and discomfort to the patients but also clinical serious sequelae like bo...

We would like to thank our colleagues for their interest in our work (1). They rightly mentioned that there is a discrepancy in the evaluation of guidelines in recently published paper (2). However, this topic is discussed in detail in our manuscript and we make particular reference to this in the discussion

Aim: The aim of this study was to provide comprehensive evidence-based assessment of the discontinuity of the marginal artery at the splenic flexure (SF) and the rectosigmoid junction (RSJ). Method: A systematic review was conducted of literature published to 26 December 2022 in the electronic databases PubMed, SCOPUS and Web of Science to ident...

Introduction Retrospective cohort studies with limited sample sizes suggest that the incidence of appendix cancer may be increased in patients having surgery for colorectal cancer. Aims To determine whether patients who underwent surgery for colorectal cancer are at higher risk of appendix cancer. Methods Cases of colorectal and appendix cancer w...

General surgeons encounter a significant number of patients suffering from inflammatory bowel disease. During the course of their disease, these patients may develop complications that require emergency surgery, such as acute bowel obstruction, life-threatening gastrointestinal hemorrhage, septic shock due to bowel perforation and toxic megacolon....

Background: Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods: This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published i...

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the fragility of electivesurgical and anaesthesia services, resulting in millions ofoperations being cancelled across the world1. As healthsystems plan post-COVID recovery of elective surgicalservices, they should identify potential future external risksto surgical services2. Extreme weather events resulting fromclimat...

Background: Haemorrhoids are a very common disease and many professional societies have produced guidelines for their treatment. The aim of this study is to appraise the quality of the existing guidelines in the management of haemorrhoids. Methods: A systematic search of the literature was conducted in the EMBASE, Google Scholar, Cochrane library,...

Background: Shared decision-making (SDM) between clinicians and patients is one of the pillars of the modern patient-centric philosophy of care. This study aims to explore SDM in the discipline of trauma and emergency surgery, investigating its interpretation as well as the barriers and facilitators for its implementation among surgeons. Methods:...

Aim: Multiple neoadjuvant therapy strategies have been used and compared for rectal cancer and there has been no true consensus as to the optimal neoadjuvant therapy regimen. The aim is to identify and compare the neoadjuvant therapies available for stage II and III rectal cancer. Design: A systematic literature review was performed, from incept...

Background Prophylactic negative-pressure wound therapy (pNPWT) may prevent surgical site infection (SSI) after laparotomy, but existing meta-analyses pooling only high-quality evidence have failed to confirm this effect. Recently, several randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have been published. We performed an updated systematic review and meta-an...

Background: In contrast to adults, the situation for pediatric trauma care from an international point of view and the global management of severely injured children remain rather unclear. The current study investigates structural management of pediatric trauma in centers of different trauma levels as well as experiences with pediatric trauma mana...

Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) is gaining traction in medicine and surgery. AI-based applications can offer tools to examine high-volume data to inform predictive analytics that supports complex decision-making processes. Time-sensitive trauma and emergency contexts are often challenging. The study aims to investigate trauma and emergenc...

Aim: The choice to perform protective ileostomy (PI) after anterior resection (AR) is mainly guided by risk factors (RFs) responsible for anastomotic leakage (AL) development. However, clear guidelines about PI creation are still lacking in the literature and this is often decided according to the surgeon's preferences, experiences, or feelings. T...

Introduction: Crohn's Anal Fistula (CAF) is a complex condition, with no agreement on which patient characteristics should be routinely reported in studies. The aim of this study was to develop a core descriptor set of key patient characteristics for reporting in all CAF research. Methods: Candidate descriptors were generated from published lite...

Background The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is still ongoing and a major challenge for health care services worldwide. In the first WSES COVID-19 emergency surgery survey , a strong negative impact on emergency surgery (ES) had been described already early in the pandemic situation. However, the knowledge is limited about current effects of the pandemic on...

Background The 2015 Lancet Commission on global surgery identified surgery and anaesthesia as indispensable parts of holistic health-care systems. However, COVID-19 exposed the fragility of planned surgical services around the world, which have also been neglected in pandemic recovery planning. This study aimed to develop and validate a novel index...

Abstract Background In 2020, ACIE Appy study showed that COVID-19 pandemic heavily affected the management of patients with acute appendicitis (AA) worldwide, with an increased rate of non-operative management (NOM) strategies and a trend toward open surgery due to concern of virus transmission by laparoscopy and controversial recommendations on th...

Background and aims: Despite the advances in medical therapies, a significant proportion of patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) require surgical intervention. This Topical Review aims to offer expert consensus practice recommendations for peri-operative care to optimise outcomes of IBD patients who undergo surgery. Methods: A multidi...

Background The impact of body mass index (BMI) on long-term survival outcomes after colorectal cancer surgery is debated. Design A systematic literature review and meta-analysis was performed to compare long-term survival outcomes of patients of different BMI categories after colorectal cancer surgery. Results Of the 2588 articles screened, 56 ar...

Appendicectomy is a common pediatric surgical procedure performed by trainees and surgeons with varying reported outcomes. It is a benchmark procedure for trainee progression and training benefits should be weighed against patient safety and perioperative outcomes. This systematic review and meta-analysis investigated any differential perioperative...

Background: The aim of this meta-analysis was to assess the impact of operative blood loss on short and long-term outcomes following colorectal cancer surgery. Methods: A systematic literature review and meta-analysis were performed, from inception to the 10th of August 2020. A comprehensive literature search was performed on the 10th of August...

Background: Different techniques exist for the imaging of lateral lymph nodes in rectal cancer. Objective: This study aimed to compare the diagnostic accuracy of pelvic MRI, 18 F-FDG-PET/CT, and 18 F-FDG-PET/MRI for the identification of lateral lymph node metastases in rectal cancer. Data sources: Data sources include PubMed, Embase, Cochrane...

Aim The use of simulation for the training of junior doctors in surgery usually involves either practicing technical skills or exercising communication skills. We have identified a gap in crisis resource management training of junior surgical trainees with scenario-based simulation. We have developed a one-day simulation course on general surgical...

Background There is a substantial gap in provision of adequate surgical care in many low- and middle-income countries. This study aimed to identify the economic burden of unmet surgical need for the common condition of appendicitis. Methods Data on the incidence of appendicitis from 170 countries and two different approaches were used to estimate n...

Background In 2020, ACIE Appy study showed that COVID-19 pandemic heavily affected the management of patients with acute appendicitis (AA) worldwide, with an increased rate of non-operative management (NOM) strategies and a trend toward open surgery due to concern of virus transmission by laparoscopy and controversial recommendations on this issue....

Following the publication of the original article [1], the author name “Dragos Serban” under The WSES COVID-19 emergency surgery survey collaboration group was incorrectly written as “Dragos Seban” instead of “Dragos Serban”. The original article has been corrected.

Background Appendectomy is a benchmark operation for trainee progression, but this should be weighed against patient safety and perioperative outcomes. Methods Systematic literature review and meta-analysis comparing outcomes of appendectomy performed by trainees versus trained surgeons. Results Of 2086 articles screened, 29 studies reporting on...

Background Impairment of bowel, urogenital and fertility-related function in patients treated for rectal cancer is common. While the rate of rectal cancer in the young (<50 years) is rising, there is little data on functional outcomes in this group.Methods The REACCT international collaborative database was reviewed and data on eligible patients an...

Introduction Anastomotic leakage (AL), one of the feared complications after low anterior resection (LAR), has been reported to be as high as 20 per cent for LAR¹. AL may result in poorer oncological outcomes and increased mortality². As such, several methods have been explored to minimize the risk of AL in patients undergoing LAR for rectal cancer...

Objective Observational studies have shown that fluorescence angiography (FA) decreases the incidence of anastomotic leak (AL) in colorectal surgery, but high-quality pooled evidence was lacking. Therefore, we aimed at confirming this preliminary finding using a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in the field...

Introduction Routine operative treatment of appendicitis was temporarily interrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Non-operative management in suspected appendicitis makes a definitive diagnosis difficult. This study investigated diagnostic outcomes of suspected appendicitis patients before and during COVID-19. Method A retrospective review of pat...

Professional surgical societies recommend the identification and treatment of pre-operative anaemia in patients scheduled for abdominal surgery. Our aim was to determine if pre-operative iron allows correction of haemoglobin concentration and decreased incidence of peri-operative blood transfusion in patients undergoing major abdominal surgery. MED...

Background: The aim of this study was to compare energy devices used for intraoperative hemostasis during colorectal surgery. Methods: A systematic literature review and Bayesian network meta-analysis performed. MEDLINE, EMBASE, Science Citation Index Expanded, and Cochrane were searched from inception to August 11th 2021. Intraoperative outcome...

Acute left colonic diverticulitis (ALCD) in the elderly presents with unique epidemiological features when compared with younger patients. The clinical presentation is more nuanced in the elderly population, having higher in-hospital and postoperative mortality. Furthermore, geriatric comorbidities are a risk factor for complicated diverticulitis....

Rectovaginal fistula (RVF) occurring during the course of Crohn's disease (CD) constitutes a therapeutic challenge and is characterized by a high rate of recurrence. To optimize the outcome of CD-related RVF repair, the best conditions for correct healing should be obtained. Remission of CD should be achieved with no active proctitis, the perianal...

Background This study aimed to determine the impact of pulmonary complications on death after surgery both before and during the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic. Methods This was a patient-level, comparative analysis of two, international prospective cohort studies: one before the pandemic (January–October 201...

Objectives: Studies have demonstrated high rates of mortality in people with proximal femoral fracture and SARS-CoV-2, but there is limited published data on the factors that influence mortality for clinicians to make informed treatment decisions. This study aims to report the 30-day mortality associated with perioperative infection of patients un...

SARS-CoV-2 has been associated with an increased rate of venous thromboembolism in critically ill patients.Since surgical patients are already at higher risk of venous thromboembolism than general populations, thisstudy aimed to determine if patients with peri-operative or prior SARS-CoV-2 were at further increased risk ofvenous thromboembolism. We...

The role of lateral lymph node dissection (LLND) during total mesorectal excision (TME) for rectal cancer is still controversial. Many reviews were published on prophylactic LLND in rectal cancer surgery, some biased by heterogeneity of overall associated treatments. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to perform a timeline analy...

Aims The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy and outcomes of conservative versus surgical management of acute appendicitis (AA) during the pandemic. Methods We conducted an observational study in a tertiary centre. Data was collected from all patients (≥16 years) with a diagnosis of AA between 1st November 2019 to 10th March 2020 (pre-...

A 67-years-old female presented with right lower abdominal pain and raised inflammatory markers. A computed tomography scan showed marked inflammatory changes with collections adjacent to terminal ileum. Patient was managed with intravenous antibiotics initially. Subsequent colonoscopy showed a bulky 8cm caecal pole tumour involving ileocaecal valv...

PurposeThere is no consensus in the literature regarding the association between operative blood loss and postoperative outcomes in colorectal surgery, despite evidence suggesting a link. Therefore, this systematic review assesses the association between operative blood loss, perioperative and long-term outcomes after colorectal surgery.MethodsA li...

Background and Objective: During the COVID-19 pandemic, health systems worldwide made major changes to their organization, delaying diagnosis and treatment across a broad spectrum of pathologies. Concerning surgery, there was an evident reduction in all elective and emergency activities, particularly for benign pathologies such as acute diverticuli...

Aim Several treatment strategies for post-operative ileus have been evaluated in randomised controlled trials. This network meta-analysis aimed to explore the relative effectiveness of these different therapies on their impact on ileus outcome measures. Method A systematic review was conducted to identify randomised controlled trials reported up t...