Dr. Totten invited to make oral presentation at annual Academic Surgical Congress
By Josh Shepherd,
Department of Surgery Publications Office
A UK Department of Surgery faculty member has been invited to make an oral presentation of research at the annual Academic Surgical Congress (ASC) in Jacksonville, Florida next February.
Crystal Totten, MD, who is both a departmental faculty member and a fellow in minimally-invasive surgery at UK, received the invitation from the ASC at the end of October.
Her abstract, “Hospital Costs for 90 Days Before and After Ventral Hernia Repair using Biologic versus Synthetic Mesh” was among several dozen selected for presentations during the 11th annual ASC. She is principal investigator in a study co-authored by Dr. Dan Davenport, Scott Roth, MD and former medical student Nicholas Ward.
According to Dr. Totten, the study is a comparison of costs that UK HealthCare incurs in the provision of a fairly common surgical procedure, ventral hernia repair, at the hospital using either a biologic or synthetic mesh. The research team conducted a retrospective review on the outcomes of approximately 380 surgery patients.
“Much of the literature supports the use of biologic mesh in contaminated cases. We matched patients treated with biologic or synthetic mesh with similar amounts of contamination, post-surgical infections and readmissions,” Dr. Totten said.
Their results showed very little difference in outcomes between the two types of mesh in cases with minimal contamination. However, there was a huge disparity in cost with biologic mesh about $20,000 more expensive than synthetic. Factored into the study’s analysis is the revenue versus losses incurred by UK Hospital as well as the billable cost to the patient.
Dr. Totten’s presentation will consist of an eight minute discussion of the study and its findings followed by a four-minute discussion period on Wednesday afternoon, February 3, 2016 at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Jacksonville.
The 2016 edition of the Academic Surgical Congress is co-sponsored by the Association for Academic Surgery (AAS) and the Society of University Surgeons (SUS).
For more information on the upcoming ACS, including advance registration information, go to http://academicsurgicalcongress.org/.
