Background The American Urological Association published guidelines in 2014 regarding management of undescended testicles (UDT). Despite these guidelines, prior studies have indicated discordance between guidelines and actual practice, especially in rural states. This study aims to identify if educating referring providers improves management of UDT. Methods Patients with UDT referred to our institution were divided into two groups: those referred prior to (Group 1) and after (Group 2) targeted education. A retrospective review was performed to compare the groups in terms of age at time of referral and surgery, laterality, specialty, and practice setting of referring provider, and whether or not ultrasound (US) was performed prior to referral. Results A total of 100 patients were identified in Group 1 and 168 in Group 2. No significant differences were noted between groups regarding age, variability of referring provider, or those receiving US prior to referral. Median age at referral was 20.7 months (range=0–194) and 33 months (range=0–205.1) in Groups 1 and 2, respectively ( p =0.26). Sixty-two (37%) patients underwent surgical evaluation within 18 months of age or younger in Group 1 compared to 39 (39%) in Group 2 ( p =0.73). Private practice pediatricians comprised the majority of referring providers in both cohorts. US was performed prior to referral in 41% of patients in Group 1 compared to 35.8% in Group 2 ( p =0.51). The number of US ordered prior to referral significantly decreased from 10 (50%) to six (19%) following education among academic providers ( p =0.02). No significant difference was found following education for private practice physicians ( p =0.27). Conclusion Targeted education did not improve age at referral in the short-term, which may reflect suboptimal healthcare access. Additionally, more research is needed to evaluate whether more diverse targeted education provided on a regular basis to both physician and mid-level providers would have a meaningful impact.
Introduction Clinically node-positive non-metastatic bladder cancer (cN+) has been the target of several studies aiming to establish a standard of care for this population. Limited studies have shown a survival benefit for various multimodal therapy approaches. The role of radiation therapy has not been well established. Our study aims to study the trends of the reported treatment options offered to patients with cN+ bladder cancer in a national database and to evaluate the effect of various treatments, including radiation, on survival. Methods The National Cancer Database (NCDB) was used to identify cN+ bladder cancer patients who received chemotherapy alone or in combination with radical cystectomy (RC) or radiotherapy. 3,481 patients were included and divided into 4 groups: chemotherapy only, chemotherapy and RC, chemotherapy and radiation therapy, and chemotherapy, RC, and radiation therapy. Demographic data was compared using ANOVA for continuous variables, and Chi-square for categorical variables. Multivariable analysis was done to compare groups using a multinomial logistic regression model. Kaplan-Meier test was used for survival analysis and Cox-Regression was used for multivariable survival analysis. Results Patients undergoing RC were significantly younger ( P <0.001). There was a significant difference between the groups regarding racial distribution, facility-type and insurance status. There was no difference in gender, Charlson\Deyo score, financial or educational status. Patients who underwent combination therapy with chemotherapy and RC were found to have the longest median survival time at 27 months. Multivariable analysis showed that final treatment, age, sex, Charlson\Deyo comorbidity score, TNM edition and facility-type were significant survival predictors. Race, insurance and financial status failed to maintain significance. There was no survival difference between the chemotherapy group and chemo-radiotherapy group. Conclusions The combination of surgery and chemotherapy achieves statistically significant superior survival in cN+ bladder cancer. Adding radiotherapy to chemotherapy did not improve survival in this group of patients. Abbreviations (cN+): Clinically node-positive non-metastatic, (MIBC): Muscle invasive bladder cancer, (NCDB): National Cancer Database, (NAC): Neoadjuvant chemotherapy, (RC): Radical Cystectomy
Introduction and hypothesisOveractive bladder (OAB) affects up to 43% of women. Treatment ranges from lifestyle modification to invasive therapies. Nearly 75% of patients report using the internet to gain health information creating a need for interpretable, online resources. This study is aimed at evaluating the readability of online resources for OAB treatment in the US population. Methods Google and Bing were queried regarding "sacral neuromodulation," "peripheral tibial nerve stimulation (PTNS)," and "bladder botox." The first 20 results from each search engine were assessed, representing over 90% of accessed search results. Websites were categorized as institutional/reference, commercial, nonprofit, or personal. The Gunning fog (GF), Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG), and Dale-Chall (DC) validated readability scores were used to assess results. Results Sacral neuromodulation yielded 27 eligible results. The associated mean readability scores correlated with levels of college senior (GF), high school junior (SMOG), and college level (DC). PTNS yielded 31 eligible results. The associated mean readability scores correlated with levels of college senior (GF), high school senior (SMOG), and college level (DC). Bladder botox yielded 17 eligible results. The associated mean readability scores correlated with levels of college sophomore (GF), high school junior (SMOG), and college level (DC). There was no difference between the therapies regarding readability. Sixty-one percent of websites were institutional/reference, 24% were commercial, 13% were nonprofit, and 2% were personal. Conclusions High levels of reading comprehension are required by the general US population to understand OAB information obtained through the internet. These findings highlight a need for simplification of online resources pertaining to OAB.
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