Behind The Knife: The Surgery Podcast

An ever-present spectre looming over the hearts of general surgeons everywhere! Please join our Emergency General Surgery team for a journal review about Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infection. Dr. Ashlie Nadler and Dr. Jordan Nantais are joined by guest Dr. Marika Sevigny, recent graduate of trauma and acute care surgery at the University of Toronto, as Dr. Graham Skelhorne-Gross prepares for his upcoming fellowship at Harborview. Paper 1: Ahmed et al. Risk factors of surgical mortality in patients with Clostridium difficile colitis. A novel scoring system. Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg. 2022 Jun. - Risk score development study using data from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) - 525 adult (18-89) patients undergoing colectomy between 2012 and 2016 - Split data into training (80%) and testing (20%) datasets -  Identified mortality risk factors to create and validate a scoring system - Scores ranged from 0 to 37 with the highest score predicting an 83.9% risk