Roberto Cirocchi

Università degli Studi di Perugia | UNIPG · Department of Surgical Sciences, Radiology and Dentistry

Beyond religious and political beliefs, a general code of morality and ethics is somehow innate in the human soul and must guide each and every action of any surgeon, in elective and emergency conditions. In emergency, the application of moral principles is often stretched and critical due to time-sensitive conditions and procedures. There is a gro...

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: This systematic umbrella review aims to investigate and provide an analysis of guidelines regarding the treatment of diverticular abscesses. Material and methods: A systematic literature search was performed using the Cochrane Overviews of Reviews model and the 'Clinical Practice Guidelines'; at the end of initial search, only 12 gui...

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...

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...

Background: The axilla is a region of fundamental importance for the implications during oncological surgery, and there are many classifications of axillary lymph node subdivision: on the basis of studies on women with breast cancer, we used Clough’s and Li’s classification. However, currently we do not have a gold-standard classification regarding...

Background: This systematic umbrella review aims to investigate whether provide an analysis of guidelines regarding the treatment of diverticular abscesses summarizing the evidences from the best available practice. Material and methods: A systematic literature search was performed until using the Cochrane Overviews of Reviews model for search the...

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...

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...

Primary and incisional ventral hernias are significant public health issues for their prevalence, variability of professional practices, and high costs associated with the treatment In 2019, the Board of Directors of the Italian Society for Endoscopic Surgery (SICE) promoted the development of new guidelines on the laparoscopic treatment of ventral...

Background: The treatment of the primary tumour in colorectal cancer with unresectable liver and/or lung metastases but no peritoneal carcinomatosis is still a matter of debate. In the absence of clear evidence and guidelines, our survey was aimed at obtaining a snapshot of the current attitudes and the rationales for the choice of offering resect...

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 between branches of the int...

Perirectal hematoma (PH) is one of the most feared complications of stapling procedures. Literature reviews have reported only a few works on PH, most of them describing isolated treatment approaches and severe outcomes. The aim of this study was to analyze a homogenous case series of PH and to define a treatment algorithm for huge postoperative PH...

Introduction Recent evidence confirms that the treatment of acute appendicitis is not necessarily surgical, and selected patients with uncomplicated appendicitis can benefit from a non-operative management. Unfortunately, no cost-effective test has been proven to be able to effectively predict the degree of appendicular inflammation as yet, therefo...

Introduction: The penetration into adjacent organs is a classical complication of peptic ulcer despite being less frequent than the other complications. The current work presents a rare case of gastric ulcer penetrating the duodenojejunal flexure and discusses the diagnostic difficulties, pitfalls, and current treatment strategy. Case report: A 63-...

Background: Acute cholecystitis is one of the most common causes of acute abdomen. Early laparoscopic cholecystectomy is the gold standard treatment, still burdened by a risk of intraoperative biliary duct injury. An alternative strategy to manage patients with severe acute cholecystitis is the percutaneous gallbladder drainage (PGBD). Methods:...

Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP) is a rare neoplasm characterized by a high rate of local recurrence and a low risk of metastases. Occurrence in the breast is extremely rare and requires an adequate preoperative diagnosis for a correct management. We report a case of a giant exophytic DFSP of the right breast in a young-aged woman. Radical ma...

Introduction The oncological outcomes of low ligation (LL) compared to high ligation (HL) of the inferior mesenteric artery (IMA) during low-anterior rectal resection (LAR) with total mesorectal excision are still debated. The aim of this study is to report the 5 year oncologic outcomes of patients undergoing laparoscopic LAR with either HL vs. LL...

Fournier’s gangrene is a necrotizing soft tissue infection of the genital, perineal, and perirectal areas. A primary isolated involvement of the penis is rare, but it can be affected in some circumstances. The purpose of this case series is to present the findings of our thirteen years’ experience in the reconstruction of the penis in Fournier’s ga...

BACKGROUND Acute appendicitis (AA) is one of the main indications for urgent surgery. Laparoscopic appendectomy (LA) has shown advantages in terms of clinical results and cost-effectiveness, even if there is still controversy about different devices to utilize, especially with regards to the endoloop (EL) vs endostapler (ES) when it comes to stump...

Surveys on Serial Transverse Enteroplasty (STEP) published in international literature (1 January 2003– 31 May 2021) were searched. Articles were included from 17 countries: 1/23 comparative and 22/23 cohort studies. STEP was performed on 308 patients: pediatrics, adults, and mixed ages. Pediatric group included 16 studies and the adult 6. Pre-STEP...

Sportsman’s hernia is a painful syndrome in the inguinal area occurring in patients who play sports at an amatorial or professional level. Pain arises during sport, and sometimes persists after activity, representing an obstacle to sport resumption. A laparoscopic/endoscopic approach is proposed by many authors for treatment of the inguinal wall de...

Background and Objectives Short-bowel syndrome (SBS) results from the loss of a significant portion of the small intestine leading to a state of malabsorption. After an intestinal loss, there is a process of adaptation involving the Glucagon-Like Peptide-2 (GLP-2), an enteroendocrine peptide also involved in nutrient absorption. Teduglutide is a re...

Introduction: The concept of "weekend effect", that is, substandard healthcare during weekends, has never been fully demonstrated, and the different outcomes of emergency surgical patients admitted during weekends may be due to different conditions at admission and/or different therapeutic approaches. Aim of this international audit was to identif...

Background Thyroid nodules are frequent in adult population and thyroid cancer incidence has increased dramatically over the past three decades. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the US-Elastosonography (USE) diagnostic performance in assessing the thyroid nodules malignancy risk. Methods PubMed and Embase databas...

Background: The aim of this review is to compare the outcomes of surgical repair versus watchful waiting in asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic inguinal hernias. Methods: Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guidelines were employed. We analysed primary outcomes: pain, quality of life, pain during daily activities...

Background: The incidence of synchronous multiple primary lung cancer (SMPLC) has progressively increased, due to recent advances in imaging. To date, no guidelines defining recommendations for patients' selection and no standard treatment of cases with SMPLC have been defined.The primary aim of this systematic review was to assess survival among...

The particular characteristics of COVID-19 demand the careful biomedical study of samples from patients who have shown different symptomatology, in order to understand the genetic foundations of its phenotypic expression. Research on genetic material from COVID-19 patients is indispensable for understanding the biological bases for its varied clini...

Background and aim: Although sigmoidectomy is a well-standardized procedure for diverticular disease, there are still unclear areas related to the varying morphology and vascular supply of the sigmoid colon. The level of vascular ligation could affect the functional outcomes of patients operated on for diverticular disease. The aim of this review...

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...

Introduction This How-I-Do-It article presents a modified Deloyers procedure by mean of the case of a 67-year-old female with adenocarcinoma extending for a long segment and involving the splenic flexure and proximal descending colon who underwent a laparoscopic left extended hemicolectomy (LELC) with derotation of the right colon and primary color...

Background In the last two decades, there has been a Copernican revolution in the decision-making for the treatment of Diverticular Disease. Purpose This article provides a report on the state-of-the-art of surgery for sigmoid diverticulitis. Conclusion Acute diverticulitis is the most common reason for colonic resection after cancer; in the last...

Enteroatmospheric fistulas (EAFs) are still the worst complication of the open abdomen. They lead to a significantly prolonged intensive care unit and hospital stay and to high mortality. Despite the various techniques described in the literature EAFs remain “a nightmare” for the patient, the surgeon, and the hospital. Here we describe a case of ri...

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic is having a deep impact on emergency surgical services, with a significant reduction of patients admitted into emergency surgical units world widely. Reliable figures of this reduction have not been produced yet. Our international audit aimed at giving a precise snapshot of the absolute and relative changes of eme...

Objectives: Surgical site infections (SSIs) in lower extremity vascular surgeries, post-groin incision, are not only common complications and significant contributors to patient mortality and morbidity, but also major financial burdens on healthcare systems and patients. In spite of recent advances in pre- and post-operative care, SSI rates in the...

Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) of the pancreas is a relatively new entity that has gained increased attention because of its unique features – presence of different subtypes with different malignant potential, biological behavior, and prognosis, higher rates of recurrences and concomitant or metachronous pancreatic duct cancer. It i...

Background: Although the treatment guidelines for left sided diverticulitis are clear, the management of right colonic diverticulitis is not well established. This disease can no longer be ignored due to significant spread throughout Asia. Aim: To analyse epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment of right-sided diverticulitis in western countries....

In the last two decades, studies of lymphoscintigraphy imaging in lymphatic mapping reported an extreme heterogeneity of skin lymphatic drainage of some skin area, in contrast with the previous scientific literature. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of any correlations between the topographical location of cutaneous melanoma an...

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic is having a deep impact on emergency surgical services, with a significant reduction of patients admitted into emergency surgical units world widely. Reliable figures of this reduction have not been produced yet. Our international audit aimed at giving a precise snapshot of the absolute and relative changes of eme...

Background: To define what type of injuries are more frequently related to medicolegal claims and civil action judgments. Methods: We performed a scoping review on 14 studies and 2406 patients, analyzing medicolegal claims related to laparoscopic cholecystectomy injuries. We have focalized on three phases associated with claims: phase of care, l...

The spread of the COVID-19 disease substantially influenced the International Healthcare system, and the national governments worldwide had before long to decide how to manage the available resources, giving priority to the treatment of the COVID-infected patients. Then, in many countries, it was decided to limit the elective procedures to surgical...

Background: Laparoscopic right hemicolectomy requires a precise anatomical dissection to mobilise the right and proximal transverse mesocolon, following the avascular fusion planes of Toldt and Fredet. Fredet's plane is crucial to the preparation of the origin of vessels. Easy access to Fredet's and Toldt's fasciae can be obtained through the "duo...

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...

In Countries with Common Law, the principles of medical liability in case of malpractice claim are based on the Bolam/Bolitho tests, that is, the opinion of a panel of average professionals of the same specialty. On the contrary, in Countries whose legal system is based on the Corpus Iustinianeum the practice of a doctor is benchmarked against esta...

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...

Background Acute appendicitis is one of the most frequent abdominal surgical emergencies. Intra-abdominal abscess is a frequent post-operative complication. The aim of this meta-analysis was to compare peritoneal irrigation and suction versus suction only when performing appendectomy for complicated appendicitis. Methods According to PRISMA guidel...

Peptic ulcer is a very common disease in the population, especially in the elderly, with an incidence of 5–10%. It is estimated that 2–10% of patients with peptic ulcer undergo ulcer perforation, which is one of the most common complications. The control of risk factors over time, associated with the improvement of diagnostic criteria and the impro...

Background Dissection with subsequent ligation and resection of arteries at their origin (central vascular ligation, CVL) is essential for adequate oncological resection during right hemicolectomy (RH) with complete mesocolic excision (CME). This technique is technically demanding due to the highly variable arterial pattern of the right colon. Ther...

Purpose The aim of this study was to compare the outcomes of right hemicolectomy with CME performed with laparoscopic and open surgery. Methods PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Data, Google Scholar and the ClinicalTrials.gov register were searched. Primary outcome was the overall number of harvested...

Background: There are still concerns over the safety of laparoscopic surgery in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients due to the potential risk of viral transmission through surgical smoke/laparoscopic pneumoperitoneum. Methods: We performed a systematic review of currently available literature to determine the presence of severe acute respi...

Objective: To study the role for preoperative CT chest scans in suspected COVID-19 patients requiring emergent surgery. Design: Retrospective – observational. Participants: A total of 98 patients admitted for emergency surgery with COVID-19 infection and underwent preoperative CT chest scanning. Main outcome measurements: Incidence of clinical symp...

Microwave ablation is a safe and effective interventional approach, widely used in the treatment of unresectable primary or metastatic hepatic lesions. Thoracobiliary fistula is a rare postablation complication that can be treated with a conservative or surgical approach. We reviewed aetiology, pathogenesis, clinical picture, diagnostic possibiliti...

Objective: To study the role for preoperative CT chest scans in suspected COVID-19 patients requiring emergent surgery. Design: Retrospective-observational. Participants: A total of 98 patients admitted for emergency surgery with COVID-19 infection and underwent preoperative CT chest scanning. Main outcome measurements: Incidence of clinical sympto...

Introduction Damage control surgery (DCS) is the classic approach to manage severe trauma and has recently also been considered an appropriate approach to the treatment of critically ill patients with severe intra-abdominal sepsis. The purpose of the present review is to evaluate the outcomes following DCS for Hinchey II–IV complicated acute divert...

Background and objectives: Twenty percent of the patients affected with stage IV antropyloric stomach cancer are hospitalized with a gastric outlet obstruction syndrome (GOOS) requiring its resolution to improve the quality of life (QoL). We present our preliminary short- and mid-term results regarding the influence of endoscopic placement of self...

Purpose To provide a comprehensive evidence-based assessment of the anatomical characteristics of the pyramidalis muscle (PM). Materials and methods A thorough systematic search of the literature through August 31st 2020 was conducted on major electronic databases PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science (WOS) to identify studies eligible for inclusion....

Background/aim: Endoluminal self-expanding metallic stents (SEMS) may overcome the risk of mortality and morbidity of acute intestinal obstruction because of stage IV colon (CC) or rectal (RC) cancer. We evaluated the QoL in these groups of patients. Patients and methods: Forty-eight patients were enrolled in a prospective longitudinal cohort si...

Background Assessment of anastomotic blood perfusion with intraoperative indocyanine green fluorescence angiography (ICG-FA) may be effective in preventing anastomotic leak compared with standard intraoperative methods in colorectal surgery. Methods MEDLINE, PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and the Cochrane Library were searc...

Background In the last decade, two research groups, the French group by Clough et al. (Br J Surg. 97:1659–65, 2010) and the Chinese one by Li et al. (ISRN Oncol 2013:279013, 2013), proposed two types of classification of axillary lymph nodes in breast cancer, identifying novel anatomic landmarks for dividing the axillary space in lymph node dissect...

All patients with mild symptomatic COVID-19 in this study displayed CT evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Preoperative CT imaging should be considered for identifying suspected active SARS-CoV-2 cases in resource limited environments with high community spread, to aid in resource allocation and PPE rationing. More sensitive and rapid diagnostics tes...

Background: Surgical resection of splenic flexure cancers (SFC) is technically demanding due to the complex regional anatomy, characterized by the presence of embryological adhesions, close proximity to the pancreas and spleen, and a highly heterogenous arterial supply and lymphatic drainage. The accessory middle colic artery (AMCA) is increasingly...