HPB Blog: October 2016

The editorial team has just had the opportunity to meet last week to reflect on the progress of HPB in the last year and since our change of publisher. For me, this month’s issue emphasizes that the team and Elsevier have not done too badly and that the Journal continues to go from strength to strength. Let me pick out a few articles that we are pleased to showcase in this October issue.

The issue kicks off with an update from Robert Martin and his colleagues  on the increasingly topical issue of the use of electroporation in locally advanced pancreatic cancer. There is gathering evidence that it can be used safely in an attempt to extend the survival of affected patients. In a key article, Postlewait and colleagues  also challenge the HPB community to consider a change in the currently used staging system for distal cholangiocarcinoma since their study has shown that tumour size and the presence of lymphovascular invasion relate better to patient outcomes.

What else is hot? It has taken this journal a while to publish articles on the ALPPS procedure, but we are now seeing a steady trickle of submissions that are trying to better define the role of an operation upon which the HPB surgical community rather stumbled! The Zurich group’s report  has undertaken an informative study which suggests that the rate of growth of the future liver remnant is perhaps more important in predicting postoperative liver failure after the initial stage 1 procedure than merely looking at future liver remnant volume alone. We may have appreciated the value of this information when using portal vein embolization. While this might not be entirely useful once the surgeon has committed to ALPPS, it might go some way to at least addressing the worrying mortality now being reported for some pathologies such as cholangiocarcinoma. More on this in a future issue!

There is much more in the October issue that adds to our evidenced base practice. However, I would also suggest that you take a look at two other articles in advanced pancreatic surgery. The editorial team understands the need to educate as well as deliver quality evidence based medicine. If you want to catch a glimpse of the future, don't just read the compelling data from the study of Ocuin and the Pittsburgh group  on robotic distal pancreatectomy with celiac resection, take a look at the high quality video (available as supplementary material on the Journal website).  And then alongside this, we are fortunate to have an article from Alemi and colleagues  which not only seeks to classify the techniques of en bloc venous construction but also illustrates these beautifully with three excellent videos . We hope that these articles and excellent supplementary educational material challenge you to submit your HPB surgery experience to global scrutiny in our Journal.

James Garden
HPB Editor-in-Chief

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