Outcomes of EXOGEN low-intensity pulsed ultrasound in the management of delayed union following elective foot and ankle surgery

M.Koziara, AB. Scrimshire, P.Torres IntroductionEXOGEN therapy is established in the management of fracture delayed/non-unions. It has recently been recommended by NICE for use in trauma. Use of EXOGEN in delayed unions in elective foot and ankle surgery has not been previously reported.  We aim to review the indications and outcomes of EXOGEN therapy in managing…

Review of ALPPS Cases in the Freeman Hospital

Nicole Gull IntroductionThe ALPPS (Associating Liver Partition and Portal vein Ligation for Staged hepatectomy) procedure is a novel surgical approach for the management of primary and secondary liver cancers, first described in the literature in 2012. The aim of this review was to evaluate the effectiveness of ALPPS procedures in our centre and compare our…

The impact of regional organ sharing and allocation in the UK Northern Liver Alliance (NLA) on waiting time to liver transplantation and waiting list survival

Abdullah K Malik, Steven Masson, Elisa Allen, Murat Akyol, Andrew Bathgate, Mervyn Davies, Ernest Hidalgo, Mark Hudson, James Powell, Agne Zarankaite, Derek M Manas On behalf of the Northern Liver Alliance (NLA) BackgroundThe Northern Liver Alliance (NLA) is a supra-regional allocation system for patients at 3 UK liver transplant centres (Newcastle, Edinburgh and Leeds). Patients…

Is it time to radically change the two week wait (2WW) referral pathway for suspected brain and CNS cancer?

JX Lee (1), A Varma (2), P Kane (2)1. Medical School, University of Newcastle2. Department of Neurosurgery, James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough BackgroundIn June 2015, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published revised 2WW referral guidelines for general practitioners (GP) for patients with suspected brain and CNS cancer. The comprehensive guidelines include recommendations…

Long Distance Relationships – Does The Geographic Distance From The Transplant Centre Affect Lung Transplant Outcomes?

Espeed Khoshbin, Joseph Battle, Hazel Muse, Kirstie Wallace, George Ditchburn, Gareth Parry, Stephen Clark BackgroundPatient and referring physician choice often means that some lung transplant recipients may reside considerable distances from their transplant centre compared with others. We reviewed a single centre experience to examine the effect of distance from home to the transplant centre…

A prospective randomised controlled trial to evaluate the role of CT in young adults with indeterminate right iliac fossa pain – the IMPACT study

Jones R, Olatunbode D, Dean J, Hall B, Harji D, Davis P, on behalf of the IMPACT investigators IntroductionIn young adults with indeterminate right iliac fossa (RIF) pain, the need for surgery often relates to the likelihood of appendicitis. Ultrasound (US) is widely used in this setting despite a low diagnostic accuracy for appendicitis. We…

The role of DOCK2 and ELMO1 in oesophageal adenocarcinoma cell migration

Mr Bertram Marks, Dr FEB May Introduction The incidence of oesophageal adenocarcinoma has increased six-fold over the past 40 years. Despite the increased prevalence, the 5-year mortality is still less than 15% and treatment doesn’t extend much beyond oesophagectomy. Co-activators of Rac1, DOCK2 and ELMO1, were found to be mutated in 17% of oesophageal adenocarcinomas…

Advanced clinical stage not associated with poor outcomes

N Newton, AW Phillips, H Jaretzke, A Immanuel, N Hayes, SM Griffin BackgroundFollowing a diagnosis of oesophageal cancer UICC TNM staging guides treatment and informs prognosis. There is recognised variance between clinical staging (cTNM) and post-operative pathological staging ((y)pTNM). T3N3 oesophageal cancers have a 5-year survival of less than 25% in most studies; given the…

The spectrum of pathologies in post-cardiac transplant paediatric deaths; what are we missing?

Thomas R. Jones (1), Srinivas Annavarapu (2)1 – Newcastle University Medical School, 2 – Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne Paediatric heart transplant (pHTx) is the “gold standard” for children with congenital heart diseases resulting in cardiac failure. However, it is challenging and uncommon and therefore only undertaken in two sites in the UK: The…

How applicable for a UK population is the proposed TNM 8 staging for Human Papilloma Virus related Oropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma?

Bradish T, Kelly C, Paleri V, Robinson M, O’Hara J BackgroundThe 8th edition of the TNM staging system introduced a new staging model for HPV related oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC).  The dataset original study behind this staging system included patients from 7 centres across North America and Europe[1] ObjectivesThis study aimed to assess how…