Unintentional firearm injury is well recognised across the civilian and police sectors worldwide. Despite the recent tempo of high grade training and operations that currently engage UK Armed Forces this form of injury remains uncommon. We hope to facilitate discussion with the chain of command to manage the risk of these injuries.

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IntroductionDecay of surgical skills due to paucity of opportunity to operate is a potential threat to patients being cared for by the Defence Medical Services while on operational deployment. Our aim was to review the literature regarding skill decay in the trained surgeon in order to understand how it may affect clinical performance and patient outcomes. We also wished to survey the likely causes of such decay and possible means of mitigation.MethodsA systematic review of the literature was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. Study bias assessment was also undertaken. Content summaries for the papers included study design and methodology, participant level of experience, measures and magnitude of effect, duration of no practice, and study limitations.ResultsFive papers met the selection criteria. There were insufficient quantitative data on the impact of surgical skill decay on patient outcome, surgeon performance or mitigation strategies, and a meaningful quantitative synthesis could not be undertaken.ConclusionsThis systematic review of the literature found very little specific evidence confirming or refuting surgical skill decay in trained surgeons, with measurement of decay hampered by the lack of an accepted methodology. Studying this in the deployed setting may offer a firmer evidence base from which to generate policy. Potential mitigation strategies are discussed.PROSPERO registration number ID260846.

Objectives: To assess the impact of a quality assured planning and sizing process and the endovascular team briefing (preprocedure run through and brief -PRTB) on the delivery of endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR), in Edinburgh. Design: Prospective observational study, comparing parameters before and after the intervention. Materials: Prospectively collected database recording infrarenal aneurysms treated with EVAR performed from January 2007 to April 2014 at our institution. The total screening time, iodinated contrast volume used, radiation dose, endovascular training opportunities, and hospital length of stay were recorded. Methods: A comparison before (January 2007 to November 2011) and after (December 2011 to April 2014) the introduction of the PRTB was made for each of these variables. Multiple linear regression analysis was performed to account for the learning effect. Results: In this study, 61 EVAR cases were performed prior to and 44 EVAR cases after the introduction of the PRTB. Univariate Mann-Whitney tests suggested a significant difference between before PRTB introduction and after PRTB introduction on all outcome variables except procedure time. Multiple linear regression analysis results showed a statistically significant improvement in outcomes after the change point for all outcomes except for radiation dose. Endovascular training opportunities were realized in 12/61 (20%) before compared to 42/44 cases (95%) after PRTB introduction. Conclusions: By introducing rigorous quality assurance and utilizing the principles of crew resource management to the EVAR process, it is possible to reduce screening times, contrast use, hospital length of stay, and improve endovascular training opportunities.

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