Bariatric surgery or lifestyle intervention? An exploratory study of severely obese patients' motivation for two different treatments

Background: In the complex field of treating severe obesity, motivation is receiving increased attention. This explorative study aims to highlight what influences the preferences of severely obese patients deciding for either gastric bypass surgery or lifestyle treatment. Methods: Patients awaiting laparoscopic gastric bypass were presented with an 18-week inpatient lifestyle programme alternative to gastric bypass. Questionnaires provided qualitative data (reasons for choosing one treatment over another) and quantitative data (mental health assessment using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale). The material was analysed according to a sequential exploratory design involving thematic analysis of patients’ arguments, validation using HADS, and statistical computations (hypothesis testing) with one-way ANOVA followed by Dunnett's post hoc test. Results: 159 participants (mean BMI 47.2 kg/m2) returned questionnaires of which 32% wanted the lifestyle treatment alternative to surgery. Reasons for choosing the two treatments varied widely as did also the corresponding data on mental health. Two subgroups stood out with particularly high mental symptom scores, namely patients choosing surgery due to reluctance to engage in social interaction in lifestyle treatment, and patients preferring lifestyle treatment due to the fear of dying during general anaesthesia. These two subgroups showed significantly higher symptom scores than other subgroups within their therapy-of-choice group. The number of comorbid diseases was also found to impact upon motivation. Conclusions: Patients carry different incentives for choosing the same type of treatment. On a subgroup level, psychopathological symptoms seem to follow motivational patterns. Analysing motivation and mental health may provide measures for identifying subgroups with various prospects for therapy outcome.© 2016. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0

Emergence and dissemination of antimicrobial resistance in Escherichia coli causing bloodstream infections in Norway in 2002-17: a nationwide, longitudinal, microbial population genomic study

Background The clonal diversity underpinning trends in multidrug resistant Escherichia coli causing bloodstream infections remains uncertain. We aimed to determine the contribution of individual clones to resistance over time, using large-scale genomics-based molecular epidemiology. Methods This was a longitudinal, E coli population, genomic, cohort study that sampled isolates from 22 512 E coli bloodstream infections included in the Norwegian surveillance programme on resistant microbes (NORM) from 2002 to 2017. 15 of 22 laboratories were able to share their isolates, and the first 22·5% of isolates from each year were requested. We used whole genome sequencing to infer the population structure (PopPUNK), and we investigated the clade composition of the dominant multidrug resistant clonal complex (CC)131 using genetic markers previously reported for sequence type (ST)131, effective population size (BEAST), and presence of determinants of antimicrobial resistance (ARIBA, PointFinder, and ResFinder databases) over time. We compared these features between the 2002–10 and 2011–17 time periods. We also compared our results with those of a longitudinal study from the UK done between 2001 and 2011. Findings Of the 3500 isolates requested from the participating laboratories, 3397 (97·1%) were received, of which 3254 (95·8%) were successfully sequenced and included in the analysis. A significant increase in the number of multidrug resistant CC131 isolates from 71 (5·6%) of 1277 in 2002–10 to 207 (10·5%) of 1977 in 2011–17 (p<0·0001), was the largest clonal expansion. CC131 was the most common clone in extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-positive isolates (75 [58·6%] of 128) and fluoroquinolone non-susceptible isolates (148 [39·2%] of 378). Within CC131, clade A increased in prevalence from 2002, whereas the global multidrug resistant clade C2 was not observed until 2007. Multiple de-novo acquisitions of both blaCTX-M ESBL-encoding genes in clades A and C1 and gain of phenotypic fluoroquinolone non-susceptibility across the clade A phylogeny were observed. We estimated that exponential increases in the effective population sizes of clades A, C1, and C2 occurred in the mid-2000s, and in clade B a decade earlier. The rate of increase in the estimated effective population size of clade A (Ne=3147) was nearly ten-times that of C2 (Ne=345), with clade A over-represented in Norwegian CC131 isolates (75 [27·0%] of 278) compared with the UK study (8 [5·4%] of 147 isolates). Interpretation The early and sustained establishment of predominantly antimicrobial susceptible CC131 clade A isolates, relative to multidrug resistant clade C2 isolates, suggests that resistance is not necessary for clonal success. However, even in the low antibiotic use setting of Norway, resistance to important antimicrobial classes has rapidly been selected for in CC131 clade A isolates. This study shows the importance of genomic surveillance in uncovering the complex ecology underlying multidrug resistance dissemination and competition, which have implications for the design of strategies and interventions to control the spread of high-risk multidrug resistant clones. Funding Trond Mohn Foundation, European Research Council, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, and the Wellcome Trust

Preserving the superior rectal artery in laparoscopic sigmoid resection for complete rectal prolapse.

Sigmoid resection is indicated in the treatment of complete rectal prolapse (CRP) in patients with prolonged colorectal transit time (CTT). Its use however has been limited due to fear of anastomotic leakage. This study challenges the current practice of dividing the mesorectum by prospectively evaluating the impact of sparing the superior rectal artery (SRA) on leak rates after laparoscopic sigmoid resection (LSR) for CRP. During 30 months data on 33 selected patients with CRP were prospectively collected. Three patients were withdrawn from the analysis, as they had neither resection nor anastomosis. Twenty-nine women and one man (median age 55 range 21-83 years) underwent LSR with preservation of SRA for a median CRP of 8 (3-15) cm. There were 20 ASA I and 10 ASA II patients. Ten patients had undergone previous surgery. Four patients complained of dyschezia, whereas incontinence was present in 26 patients. Anal ultrasound showed isolated internal sphincter defects in two patients. Four young adults (21-32 years) had normal CTT, whereas 26 older patients had a median CTT of 5 (4-6) days. Defecography demonstrated 10 enteroceles, two sigmoidoceles, and one rectal hernia through the levator ani muscle. Mortality was nil. Median operating room time was 180 (120-330) min, suprapubic incision length 5 (3-7) cm, estimated blood loss 150 (50-500) ml, specimen length 20 (12-45) cm, solid food resumption 3 (1-6) days, and length of stay 4.5 (2-7) days. Thirty-day complications were not related to anastomosing and occurred in 20% of the patients. Although the evidence provided by the present study suggests that sparing SRA has a favorable impact on anastomotic leak rates, these nonrandomized results need further evaluation. The division of the mesorectum at the rectosigmoid junction seems not necessary, and its sparing should therefore be considered as it may contain anastomotic leak rates

Bariatric surgery or lifestyle intervention? An exploratory study of severely obese patients' motivation for two different treatments

Background: In the complex field of treating severe obesity, motivation is receiving increased attention. This explorative study aims to highlight what influences the preferences of severely obese patients deciding for either gastric bypass surgery or lifestyle treatment. Methods: Patients awaiting laparoscopic gastric bypass were presented with an 18-week inpatient lifestyle programme alternative to gastric bypass. Questionnaires provided qualitative data (reasons for choosing one treatment over another) and quantitative data (mental health assessment using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale). The material was analysed according to a sequential exploratory design involving thematic analysis of patients’ arguments, validation using HADS, and statistical computations (hypothesis testing) with one-way ANOVA followed by Dunnett's post hoc test. Results: 159 participants (mean BMI 47.2 kg/m2) returned questionnaires of which 32% wanted the lifestyle treatment alternative to surgery. Reasons for choosing the two treatments varied widely as did also the corresponding data on mental health. Two subgroups stood out with particularly high mental symptom scores, namely patients choosing surgery due to reluctance to engage in social interaction in lifestyle treatment, and patients preferring lifestyle treatment due to the fear of dying during general anaesthesia. These two subgroups showed significantly higher symptom scores than other subgroups within their therapy-of-choice group. The number of comorbid diseases was also found to impact upon motivation. Conclusions: Patients carry different incentives for choosing the same type of treatment. On a subgroup level, psychopathological symptoms seem to follow motivational patterns. Analysing motivation and mental health may provide measures for identifying subgroups with various prospects for therapy outcome