Rajesh, Aashish

Background Bronchopleural fistula (BPF) is a dreaded complication of pulmonary resection. For high-risk patients, bronchial stump coverage with vascularized tissue has been recommended. The goal of this study was to report our experience with intrathoracic muscle transposition for bronchial stump coverage. Methods A retrospective review of all patients who underwent intrathoracic muscle flap transposition as a prophylactic measure at our institution between 1990 and 2010 was conducted. Demographics, surgical characteristics, and complication rates were abstracted and analyzed. Results A total of 160 patients were identified. The most common lung resections performed were pneumonectomy (n = 69, 43%) and lobectomy (n = 60, 38%). A total of 168 flaps were used where serratus anterior was the most common flap (n = 136, 81%), followed by intercostal (n = 14, 8%), and latissimus dorsi (n = 12, 7%). Ten patients (6%) developed BPF, and empyema occurred in 13 patients (8%). Median survival was 20 months, and operative mortality occurred in 7 patients (4%). Conclusions Reinforcement of the bronchial closure with vascularized muscle is a viable option for potentially decreasing the incidence of BPF in high-risk patients. Further randomized studies are needed to determine the efficacy of this technique for BPF prevention.

Background The journal impact factor (IF) is one of the most widely adopted metrics to assess journal value. We aimed to investigate the trends in the IF and ranking of plastic surgery journals (PSJs) over a 22-year period. Methods The Journal Citation Report 2018 was used to identify all journals within the field of plastic surgery from 1997 to 2018. We analyzed the IF of PSJs and that of the category surgery. Results A total of 34 PSJs were identified. The mean IF increased from 0.584 (median, 0.533) in 1997 to 1.58 (median, 1.399) in 2018 (P < 0.0001). Over the same time, the median IF of the journals in the category surgery increased from 0.914 to 1.883. The mean journal IF percentile of PSJs within surgery remained fairly stable (P = 0.999). A strong positive correlation was identified between the IF of PSJs and both the 5-year IF (r = 0.943, P < 0.0001) and the immediacy index (r = 0.736, P < 0.0001). The percentage of self-citations across the study period was fairly stable at a mean of 19.2%. A weak positive correlation was found between the IF and the percentage of self-citations (r = 0.171, P < 0.0001). Conclusions The mean journal IF in PSJs has been trending upward over the last 22 years. Ranking of PSJs IF within the category surgery has remained unchanged. The self-citation rate has been fairly stable and correlated weakly with the IF. A strong positive correlation exists between the IF and both the immediacy index and the 5-year IF.

Abstract Background Altmetrics (alternative metrics) have become one of the most commonly utilized metrics to track the impact of research articles across electronic and social media platforms. Objectives The goal of this study was to identify whether the Altmetric Attention Score (AAS) is a good proxy for citation counts and whether it can be employed as an accurate measure to complement the current gold standard. Methods The authors conducted a citation analysis of all articles published in 6 plastic surgery journals during the 2016 calendar year. Citation counts and AAS were abstracted and analyzed. Results A total of 1420 articles were identified. The mean AAS was 11 and the median AAS was 1. The journal with the highest mean AAS was Aesthetic Surgery Journal (31), followed by Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (19). A weak positive correlation was identified (r = 0.33, P &lt; .0001) between AAS and citations. Articles in the top 1% in terms of citation counts showed strong positive correlation between AAS and citation counts (r = 0.64, P = .01). On the contrary, articles in the top 1% of AAS had no significant correlation with citation counts (r = −0.31, P = .29). Conclusions Overall correlation between citations and AAS was weak, and therefor AAS may not be an accurate early predictor of future citations. The 2 metrics seem to measure different aspects of the impact of scholarly work and should be utilized in tandem for determining the reach of a scientific article.

Background: Presentation of research at scientific conferences provides an opportunity for researchers to disseminate their work and gain peer feedback. However, much of the presented work is never published in peer-reviewed journals. The authors analyzed the conversion rate of abstracts presented at three national plastic surgery meetings. Methods: Abstracts presented at the American Association of Plastic Surgeons (AAPS), the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), and the Plastic Surgery Research Council (PSRC) annual meetings in 2014 and 2015 were identified to analyze the rates of successful conversion into full-text publications. Meeting administrators were contacted to obtain the respective acceptance rates of submitted abstracts. Results: A total of 1174 abstracts were analyzed. The overall conversion rate was 65 percent. The AAPS meeting had the highest conversion rate (73 percent), followed by the PSRC (66 percent) and the ASPS (61 percent). Conversely, the AAPS meeting had a lower acceptance rate (28 percent) compared with the ASPS (42 percent) and PSRC (49 percent) meetings. The conversion rate was significantly higher for abstracts from native English-speaking countries, whereas no significant differences were noted between oral and poster presentations. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery had the highest percentage of published manuscripts (34 percent). Abstracts presented at the PSRC meeting had the highest mean impact factor for the journal of publication. First authors changed in 31 percent and last authors changed in 18 percent of publications. The overall median time to publication from the date of presentation was 13 months. Conclusions: Almost two-thirds of abstracts presented at AAPS, ASPS, and PSRC meetings successfully converted into full-text publications. Plastic surgery departments/divisions should follow unpublished work in their institutions to benefit both patients and the scientific community.