Latest news with #DepartmentofSurgery
Hindustan Times
14-07-2025
- Health
- Hindustan Times
Rare displays at War Surgery Museum tell stories of resilience, bravery on battlefield
Pune, Surgical tools, battlefield diaries, and shrapnel retrieved from wounded soldiers make for a unique display at the War Surgery Museum here, offering a rare glimpse into military medicine and the lives of brave doctors in the armed forces who served on the front lines. Rare displays at War Surgery Museum tell stories of resilience, bravery on battlefield The museum, located in the Department of Surgery at the Armed Forces Medical College , is a one-of-its-kind institution in India and perhaps Asia. Meticulously curated over decades, the museum draws young medical students, school children, veterans, and visiting dignitaries, providing a window into the life and challenges of a military surgeon and how combat medicine has evolved through major global and regional conflicts — from Mesopotamia in World War I to modern-day disaster relief operations. "People often don't understand what 'war surgery' means. It's not part of routine medical training, and this museum was envisioned to bridge that gap — to show what a military surgeon does and situations they face on the battlefield," said Col Jafar Husain, associate professor, Department of Surgery, AFMC. Established in 1948, the museum houses artefacts, rare surgical tools, battlefield diaries, shrapnel retrieved from wounded soldiers, and personal items of military doctors who served in various campaigns. One of the most striking exhibits includes shrapnel removed from casualties during the 1971 Indo-Pak War at the 7 Air Force Hospital in Kanpur, displayed alongside fragmentation patterns from artillery shells to explain the dynamics of blast injuries. A section on Japanese samurai swords — standard issue to soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army — stands as a testament to the ethics of wartime medicine. The swords were gifted to Indian Army doctors, who treated Japanese prisoners of war during World War II during campaigns in Burma, Indonesia and the Arakan region. Another significant highlight is the preserved war diary of the 3rd Indian Field Ambulance, deployed in Mesopotamia during World War I. Donated by the British High Commission, the diary records daily medical activities from 1915 to 1916 and serves as a primary account of early 20th-century battlefield care. The museum also showcases the contributions of 60 Parachute Field Hospital — the only airborne medical unit of the Indian Army. With equipment designed for aerial drops and rapid deployment, the unit has been at the forefront of operations in conflict zones as well as disaster relief efforts such as operations Brahma in Myanmar, Maitri in Nepal, Dost in Turkey, and Samudra Maitri in Indonesia. "From treating war-wounded soldiers behind enemy lines to serving in the Korean conflict for five years, 60 Para has a distinguished record. The unit can set up a full-fledged hospital, including an OT, lab, and radiology suite in remote terrains under camouflage," said Col Husain. Historical connections run deep. The museum showcases medical instruments dating back to 1917, some made by James Wise and Company. A section is dedicated to plastic surgery pioneer Dr N H Antia, a student of Sir Harold Gillies. A 100-year-old plastic surgery textbook and surgical tools used by Antia form part of the collection, illustrating the lineage of Indian surgical expertise. Adding further depth to the collection are the personal effects of Captain P N Bardhan , who began his career in the British Royal Army Medical Corps and later served as Commandant of AFMC. His mess jacket, silver medicine weights, and vintage Gillette razor reflect the era and ethos of military medicine. From ancient to modern, the museum also traces the legacy of Indian surgical traditions dating back to 2600 BC. Pictures of instruments used by Sushruta — the father of surgery — alongside descriptions of early surgical techniques establish the continuity of India's medical knowledge across millennia. "Each artefact here tells a story of resilience, innovation, and commitment. Whether it's about treating enemy soldiers with dignity, improvising surgical care in a jungle, or keeping up with international standards on the frontlines — this museum encapsulates it all," Col Husain said. Director General of Armed Forces Medical Services , Surgeon Vice Admiral Arti Sarin, who was in Pune to attend the commissioning ceremony of medical cadets at the Armed Forces Medical College , also visited the War Surgery Museum. Regularly visited by school groups, trainee doctors, and top military and civilian dignitaries, the War Surgery Museum not only documents medical history, it also serves as an inspiration for future generations of military medics, he said. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Business Wire
25-06-2025
- Health
- Business Wire
City of Hope's Dr. Yuman Fong Delivers Lister Legacy Lecture, Spotlighting Surgical Cancer Innovations
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Yuman Fong, M.D., chair of the Department of Surgery at City of Hope ®, one of the largest and most advanced cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States with its National Medical Center named a Top 5 'Best Hospital' in the nation for cancer care by U.S. News & World Report, this month delivered the Lister Legacy Lecture at the triennial conference of The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. This presentation honors the long-term impact of Baron Joseph Lister, M.D., who brought antiseptic techniques and many other innovations to surgery, saving more lives and making a real difference in how patients live. 'I am humbled to have been asked to speak on 'The Surgeon in the 21st Century.' Sir Joseph Lister's work with antiseptics laid the foundation for the sterile surgical practices we rely on today. His forward-looking mindset has inspired me to collaborate with doctors and med-tech companies around the world to push the boundaries of surgical innovation. 'At City of Hope, we are exploring the use of AI and robotics in research settings to make it one day possible for specialists to perform remote surgery together. The goal is to make exceptional cancer surgery available to everyone — no matter where they live or how close they are to a major cancer center,' said Dr. Fong, City of Hope's Sangiacomo Family Chair in Surgical Oncology. The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh is one of the oldest surgical colleges in the world and is where the father of modern surgery, Dr. Joseph Lister, worked for much of his career as a general surgeon, pathologist and medical scientist. Before Dr. Lister's pioneering work in antiseptics, people were just about ready to give up on surgery altogether because infections were killing so many patients. Dr. Lister is still on people's lips today; the popular mouthwash Listerine was named in honor of him. Dr. Fong Is Curing Stage 4 Colorectal Cancer Metastatic colorectal cancer that has spread to the liver was once considered incurable. Dr. Fong is known internationally for his expertise in liver surgery and for proving that liver resection sometimes can cure Stage 4 colorectal cancer. In fact, he devised a new scoring system called the Fong Score that is widely used in staging for this population of patients, allowing surgeons to plan a path toward surgical cure. Along the journey to less invasive liver therapies, Dr. Fong has contributed to the design and deployment of many new minimally invasive surgical and interventional tools that are used worldwide. More recently, Dr. Fong led a team that demonstrated robotic liver surgery can safely and routinely be performed as outpatient surgery. The Next Generation of Gene Therapy Dr. Fong has focused on gene therapy for over two decades, engineering viruses and immune cells to kill cancer. His City of Hope team developed CF33, a cancer-fighting virus that has been shown to shrink colon, lung, breast, ovarian and pancreatic cancer tumors in preclinical laboratory and animal models. Importantly, CF33 wakes up the immune system to join the fight. There are many ongoing multisite clinical trials to evaluate the safety and efficacy of investigational solid and blood cancer therapies based on Dr. Fong's CF33 technology*. Leveraging AI and Wearables to Improve Patient Outcomes Immunotherapies are making more cancers that were previously inoperable operatable. Minimally invasive robotic surgery has turned surgeons into superheroes with computer-aided vision sometimes powered by augmented reality (AR) for a clearer, more interactive view of what's happening inside the body. AR is enabling remote surgery and multispecialty collaboration where surgeons in different locations can work together in real time guided by shared visualizations and data overlays. Remote surgery is still undergoing preclinical testing, though it promises to be a powerful tool in emergency settings when access to top specialists is limited. AI-guided robotic systems are being tested as assistants in complex cancer surgery that can one day decrease the risk of surgical complications. For example, AI could predict how tissue will move and designate 'no go zones' where snips should not occur. In the future, some simple surgical tasks can be automated under the supervision of experienced surgeons, increasing patient safety as well as improving working conditions for surgeons who often have long operating room schedules. Additionally, Dr. Fong and his team are testing how wearables or remote monitoring devices can be leveraged before and after surgery to improve patient outcomes. For example, City of Hope has a $7 million funding award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to study how physical activity before and after surgery affects recovery in an older patient population. 'City of Hope is fast-tracking promising laboratory research into clinical trials. We incubate the next generation of cancer therapies on our campuses in Los Angeles and Orange County and look forward to one day offering these innovative investigational therapies to patients who come to our nationwide locations in Arizona, Illinois and Georgia and beyond,' Dr. Fong said. * City of Hope exclusively licensed patent rights covering CF33 to Imugene Limited. Dr. Fong has the rights to commercialization revenue from the company and is a paid member of Imugene Limited's scientific advisory board. About City of Hope City of Hope's mission is to make hope a reality for all touched by cancer and diabetes. Founded in 1913, City of Hope has grown into one of the largest and most advanced cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States, and one of the leading research centers for diabetes and other life-threatening illnesses. City of Hope research has been the basis for numerous breakthrough cancer medicines, as well as human synthetic insulin and monoclonal antibodies. With an independent, National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center that is ranked a Top 5 'Best Hospital' in the nation for cancer care by U.S. News & World Report at its core, City of Hope's uniquely integrated model spans cancer care, research and development, academics and training, and a broad philanthropy program that powers its work. City of Hope's growing national system includes its Los Angeles campus, a network of clinical care locations across Southern California, a new cancer center in Orange County, California, and cancer treatment centers and outpatient facilities in the Atlanta, Chicago and Phoenix areas. City of Hope's affiliated group of organizations includes Translational Genomics Research Institute and AccessHope TM. For more information about City of Hope, follow us on Facebook, X, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Medscape
12-06-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Video Game Improves Trauma Triage in EDs
In a secondary analysis of a trial, exposure to an educational video game on trauma triage was associated with a moderate increase in emergency department (ED) physicians' willingness to transfer injured patients to trauma centers and a smaller improvement in their ability to recognize severely injured patients. METHODOLOGY: Researchers conducted a process evaluation of a randomized clinical trial that involved 800 physicians (mean age, 43.7 years) responsible for trauma triage at EDs in levels III-V trauma centers and nontrauma centers across the US. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either usual education (control group) or a customized video game intervention designed to recalibrate trauma triage heuristics. Those in the intervention group played the game for 2 hours, after which all participants completed a 36-case virtual simulation to assess decision-making. Researchers used the signal detection theory and analyzed: Perceptual sensitivity, defined as the ability to distinguish between patients who meet vs do not meet criteria for transfer; and decisional threshold, defined as tolerance for false-positive or false-negative decisions. TAKEAWAY: Exposure to the video game was associated with a significant reduction in undertriage rates (22% vs 38%; P < .001) and a slight increase in overtriage (39% vs 34%; P < .001). < .001) and a slight increase in overtriage (39% vs 34%; < .001). Video game intervention led to a moderate increase in tolerance for false-positive decisions (intervention standard deviation [SD] units, 0.14; control SD units, 0.53) and a moderate (Cohen d = 0.60) increase in willingness to transfer. The intervention group was also associated with a higher perceptual sensitivity (1.00 SD units vs 0.87 SD units; P < .001), indicating a small improvement (Cohen d = 0.20) in recognizing severely injured patients. < .001), indicating a small improvement (Cohen d = 0.20) in recognizing severely injured patients. The intervention's effect was more pronounced among physicians working ≥ 10 shifts per month, who showed a greater reduction in undertriage (40% in the control group vs 22% in the intervention group; P = .05). IN PRACTICE: 'The results of this secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial suggest that educational adventure video games have the potential to improve physician performance in time-sensitive conditions and appear to act by increasing physicians' willingness to implement clinical practice guidelines,' the study authors wrote. SOURCE: This study was led by Deepika Mohan, MD, MPH, Department of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in Pittsburgh. It was published online on June 4 in JAMA Network Open . LIMITATIONS: The use of simulation for process evaluation may not fully reflect real-world decision-making. Physicians exposed to the intervention may have had an advantage in completing the virtual simulation. Additionally, the differences in response rates between intervention and control groups, potentially due to perceived differences in honoraria value, could have introduced bias. DISCLOSURES: This study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health. Two authors reported receiving grants from various sources. One author reported receiving $250 to participate in a stakeholder meeting.
Medscape
04-06-2025
- General
- Medscape
No Safety Advantage to Emergency Robotic Cholecystectomy
TOPLINE: In acute care settings, robotic-assisted cholecystectomy (RAC) and laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) resulted in similar rates of bile duct injury, but RAC was associated with higher rates of major postoperative complications, more frequent drain placement, and longer hospital stays than LC. METHODOLOGY: Although some prior studies have raised concerns about increased bile duct injury with RAC vs LC, their relative safety in acute care surgery remains unclear. Researchers conducted a retrospective cohort analysis using commercial claims and encounter data from 2016 to 2021 to compare outcomes between RAC and LC in acute care surgery. The primary outcome was bile duct injury; secondary outcomes included major postoperative complications, the use of a postoperative drain, length of hospital stay, surgical site infections, and conversion to open surgery. TAKEAWAY: Researchers included 844,428 adults (mean age, 45.6 years; 64.9% women), with 35,037 undergoing RAC and being propensity-matched with an equal number of adults who underwent LC. Adoption of RAC increased from 2.2% in 2016 to 8.2% in 2021. Bile duct injury rates were similar between the groups (P = .54). RAC vs LC was associated with higher rates of major postoperative complications (8.37% vs 5.50%; P < .001), an increased use of postoperative drains (0.63% vs 0.48%; P < .001), and a longer median hospital stay (3 vs 2 days; P < .001). Use of intraoperative cholangiograms was more common in the LC than in the RAC group (P < .001), whereas RAC was associated with fewer surgical site infections than LC (0.04% vs 0.09%; P = .02). Conversion to open surgery was uncommon in both the groups. IN PRACTICE: 'Although these results may partly reflect case complexity and selection bias, they do not suggest a clear advantage of RAC over the standard, established laparoscopic cholecystectomy,' the authors wrote. SOURCE: The study was led by Nathnael Abera Woldehana, MD, MPH, Division of Minimally Invasive Surgery, Department of Surgery, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore. It was published online in JAMA Surgery. LIMITATIONS: The retrospective design may have introduced selection bias and unmeasured confounding factors. The study's generalizability is limited to commercially insured populations. Long-term outcomes such as readmissions, quality of life, and cost-effectiveness were not assessed. DISCLOSURES: Some authors reported receiving conference travel/attendance support, consulting fees, grants, advisory board fees, and speaker fees and having other ties with several organizations and pharmaceutical companies. This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
Business Wire
28-05-2025
- Health
- Business Wire
Resolve Therapeutics and Duke Medical School Initiate Observational Study of Cell-free RNA in Polytrauma Patients
MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Resolve Therapeutics, a leader in the emerging field of cell-free nucleic acid therapeutics, today announced a collaboration with the Department of Surgery, Duke University School of Medicine to analyze the role of cell-free RNA (cfRNA) in polytrauma A significant number of trauma patients admitted to the hospital each year suffer from polytrauma, with multiple, life-threatening injuries requiring immediate surgical intervention. Many of these patients experience poor clinical outcomes due to Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS). The mechanism of SIRS in polytrauma patients is not completely understood but the current view holds that that massive tissue injury results in the release of large amounts of RNA into the blood overwhelming the activity of circulating RNase, which protects cells from the inflammatory effects of cfRNA under normal circumstances. The accumulating cfRNA activates several key mechanisms driving local and systemic inflammation which leads to increased morbidity and mortality. 'Preventing systemic inflammation in polytrauma would be a large step forward in the treatment paradigm for these patients,' said Allan D. Kirk, MD, PhD, Chair of the Department of Surgery at Duke University. Share Working closely with the world's foremost trauma surgeons at Duke University, Resolve and Duke will conduct an observational study to analyze the presence, structure, and drug targeting of cfRNA in a selected population of polytrauma patients. Based on the results of this work, a proof-of-concept clinical trial with RSLV-132 (a fully human, catalytically active, RNase Fc fusion protein) may be undertaken seeking to improve clinical outcomes for polytrauma patients by removing circulating inflammatory nucleic acids. 'We are thrilled to work with the world class physician scientists within the Duke University School of Medicine and are hopeful our work together may lead to an improvement in the outcome for patients with polytrauma,' commented Dr. James Posada chief executive officer of Resolve Therapeutics. 'Duke Surgery offers a unique environment, coupling state of the art patient care with basic research expertise and infrastructure to enable systematic molecular analysis of plasma-borne inflammatory nucleic acids.' 'Preventing systemic inflammation in polytrauma would be a large step forward in the treatment paradigm for these patients,' said Allan D. Kirk, MD, PhD, Chair of the Department of Surgery at Duke University. 'We look forward to the collaboration with Resolve and learning more about the underlying mechanisms of inflammation in critically injured patients,' he added. About RSLV-132 RSLV-132 is a safe, fully-human, non-immunosuppressive, non-immunogenic, biologic drug with a three-week serum half-life. The drug is comprised of catalytically active human RNase fused to an engineered Fc region of human IgG1. It is designed to remain in circulation and digest extracellular pathogenic RNA in diseases where the presence of cfRNA drives the inflammatory process. RSLV-132 has proven safe in five clinical trials and has demonstrated improvement in autoimmune symptoms in phase 2 clinical trials in both systemic lupus erythematosus and Sjogren's syndrome. About Resolve Therapeutics Resolve is a biopharmaceutical company at the forefront of the emerging field of cell-free nucleic acids in disease. We are developing RSLV-132 and RSLV-145 in a broad range of acute and chronic diseases that are driven by cell-free RNA, cell-free DNA, and Neutrophil Extracellular Traps (NETs). For more information or to discuss our programs please visit:
