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Background: Occult inguinal hernias are inguinal hernias that are not felt on physical exam but can often be seen on imaging. Their diagnosis can be challenging, leading to unnecessary surgeon referrals, undue patient stress, and even unneeded surgery. The aim of this project was to develop recommendations for the diagnosis of occult inguinal hernias using a modified Delphi technique., Methods: Iterative rounds of surveys were administered to an expert panel of surgeons and radiologists. Panelists were asked to rate potential hernia-related topics by levels of importance. Items with 80% agreement were included for further discussion. Panelists were asked to provide their opinion on each included subject. A virtual meeting was conducted to discuss areas without agreement and determine final recommendations., Results: Three surgeons and five radiologists participated. There was strong agreement that dynamic ultrasound is a good first/confirmatory imaging choice. There was agreement that the radiology reports for studies assessing inguinal hernias should include hernia contents (80%) and hernia size (100%). Information that should be provided to the radiologist when ordering an imaging study include indication for study, patient symptoms, prior hernia surgery. Items that should be included in a radiology report include whether the presence of an inguinal hernia was assessed, hernia contents, size of defect, +/- hernia type., Conclusions: This collaboration between surgeons and radiologists creates a diagnostic imaging pathway and standardizing imaging reporting which will be used to improve the diagnosis of occult inguinal hernias. Future studies testing these recommendations in a prospective study are warranted., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag France SAS, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: Surgical videos coupled with structured assessments enable surgical training programs to provide independent competency evaluations and align with the American Board of Surgery's entrustable professional activities initiative. Existing assessment instruments for minimally invasive inguinal hernia repair (IHR) have limitations with regards to reliability, validity, and usability. A cross-sectional study of six surgeons using a novel objective, procedure-specific, 8-item competency assessment for minimally invasive inguinal hernia repair (IHR-OPSA) was performed to assess inter-rater reliability using a "safe" vs. "unsafe" scoring rubric., Methods: The IHR-OPSA was developed by three expert IHR surgeons, field tested with five IHR surgeons, and revised based upon feedback. The final instrument included: (1) incision/port placement; (2) dissection of peritoneal flap (TAPP) or dissection of peritoneal flap (TEP); (3) exposure; (4) reducing the sac; (5) full dissection of the myopectineal orifice; (6) mesh insertion; (7) mesh fixation; and (8) operation flow. The IHR-OPSA was applied by six expert IHR surgeons to 20 IHR surgical videos selected to include a spectrum of hernia procedures (15 laparoscopic, 5 robotic), anatomy (14 indirect, 5 direct, 1 femoral), and Global Case Difficulty (easy, average, hard). Inter-rater reliability was assessed against Gwet's AC 2 ., Results: The IHR-OPSA inter-rater reliability was good to excellent, ranging from 0.65 to 0.97 across the eight items. Assessments of robotic procedures had higher reliability with near perfect agreement for 7 of 8 items. In general, assessments of easier cases had higher levels of agreement than harder cases., Conclusions: A novel 8-item minimally invasive IHR assessment tool was developed and tested for inter-rater reliability using a "safe" vs. "unsafe" rating system with promising results. To promote instrument validity the IHR-OPSA was designed and evaluated within the context of intended use with iterative engagement with experts and testing of constructs against real-world operative videos., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: The ability to perform a laparoscopic colectomy is an integral part of a young colorectal surgeon's practice. However, the number of resections required during colorectal residency for a surgeon to be very comfortable performing a laparoscopic colectomy independently is poorly defined. Furthermore, the percentage of trainees that achieve this goal also is unknown., Methods: An electronic survey designed by the Young Surgeon's Committee of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons (ASCRS) was sent to graduates completing Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) colorectal residencies after publication of the Clinical Outcomes Study Group (COST) trial (2004-2009). The data collected included the number of laparoscopic right (LR), laparoscopic left (LL), and laparoscopic hand-assisted left (HAL) colectomies performed during residency. Trainees were asked to assess whether at the completion of their fellowship they with each case were very comfortable (VC, would perform a laparoscopic colectomy independently), somewhat comfortable (SC, would require assistance from colleagues), or not comfortable (NC, would not perform a laparoscopic colectomy)., Results: Of the 176 (51%) former fellows responding to the survey, 42 (24%) reported performing fewer than 10 LRs, 108 (62%) reported 10 to 30 LRs, and 24 (14%) reported more than 30 LRs during their fellowship. With LR, 13 (7.5%) respondents were NC, 42 (21%) were SC, and 119 (68%) were VC. As reported, 58 fellows (33%) performed fewer than 10 LLs, 92 (53%) performed 10-30 LLs, and 22 (13%) performed more than 30 LLs. With LL, 12.2% were NC, 33.7% were SC, and 54.1% were VC. Most of the fellows (90%) who performed 30 or more LR, LL, or HAL colectomies were VC. On the average, each year's graduating fellows were more comfortable with laparoscopic colectomy than those graduating in previous years (P < 0.002)., Conclusions: Performing more than 10 LR colectomies and more than 30 LL colectomies provided the vast majority of colorectal residents with the ability to be very comfortable with these procedures as they entered practice. A concerning number of trainees (46% of LL and 24% of LR trainees) did not reach this benchmark. The new general minimal American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery (ABCRS) requirement of 50 laparoscopic resections seems appropriate but may require definition regarding the side of the procedure.