Browsing by Author "Huff, Wei"

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    Immuno-Thrombotic Complications of COVID-19: Implications for Timing of Surgery and Anticoagulation
    (Frontiers Media, 2022-05-04) Bunch, Connor M.; Moore, Ernest E.; Moore, Hunter B.; Neal, Matthew D.; Thomas, Anthony V.; Zackariya, Nuha; Zhao, Jonathan; Zackariya, Sufyan; Brenner, Toby J.; Berquist, Margaret; Buckner, Hallie; Wiarda, Grant; Fulkerson, Daniel; Huff, Wei; Kwaan, Hau C.; Lankowicz, Genevieve; Laubscher, Gert J.; Lourens, Petrus J.; Pretorius, Etheresia; Kotze, Maritha J.; Moolla, Muhammad S.; Sithole, Sithembiso; Maponga, Tongai G.; Kell, Douglas B.; Fox, Mark D.; Gillespie, Laura; Khan, Rashid Z.; Mamczak, Christiaan N.; March, Robert; Macias, Rachel; Bull, Brian S.; Walsh, Mark M.; Surgery, School of Medicine
    Early in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, global governing bodies prioritized transmissibility-based precautions and hospital capacity as the foundation for delay of elective procedures. As elective surgical volumes increased, convalescent COVID-19 patients faced increased postoperative morbidity and mortality and clinicians had limited evidence for stratifying individual risk in this population. Clear evidence now demonstrates that those recovering from COVID-19 have increased postoperative morbidity and mortality. These data-in conjunction with the recent American Society of Anesthesiologists guidelines-offer the evidence necessary to expand the early pandemic guidelines and guide the surgeon's preoperative risk assessment. Here, we argue elective surgeries should still be delayed on a personalized basis to maximize postoperative outcomes. We outline a framework for stratifying the individual COVID-19 patient's fitness for surgery based on the symptoms and severity of acute or convalescent COVID-19 illness, coagulopathy assessment, and acuity of the surgical procedure. Although the most common manifestation of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is COVID-19 pneumonitis, every system in the body is potentially afflicted by an endotheliitis. This endothelial derangement most often manifests as a hypercoagulable state on admission with associated occult and symptomatic venous and arterial thromboembolisms. The delicate balance between hyper and hypocoagulable states is defined by the local immune-thrombotic crosstalk that results commonly in a hemostatic derangement known as fibrinolytic shutdown. In tandem, the hemostatic derangements that occur during acute COVID-19 infection affect not only the timing of surgical procedures, but also the incidence of postoperative hemostatic complications related to COVID-19-associated coagulopathy (CAC). Traditional methods of thromboprophylaxis and treatment of thromboses after surgery require a tailored approach guided by an understanding of the pathophysiologic underpinnings of the COVID-19 patient. Likewise, a prolonged period of risk for developing hemostatic complications following hospitalization due to COVID-19 has resulted in guidelines from differing societies that recommend varying periods of delay following SARS-CoV-2 infection. In conclusion, we propose the perioperative, personalized assessment of COVID-19 patients' CAC using viscoelastic hemostatic assays and fluorescent microclot analysis.
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    Impact of the 2006 Massachusetts health care insurance reform on neurosurgical procedures and patient insurance status
    (2017-01) Villeli, Nicolas W.; Das, Rohit; Yan, Hong; Huff, Wei; Zou, Jian; Barbaro, Nicholas M.; Neurological Surgery, School of Medicine
    OBJECTIVE The Massachusetts health care insurance reform law passed in 2006 has many similarities to the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA). To address concerns that the ACA might negatively impact case volume and reimbursement for physicians, the authors analyzed trends in the number of neurosurgical procedures by type and patient insurance status in Massachusetts before and after the implementation of the state's health care insurance reform. The results can provide insight into the future of neurosurgery in the American health care system. METHODS The authors analyzed data from the Massachusetts State Inpatient Database on patients who underwent neurosurgical procedures in Massachusetts from 2001 through 2012. These data included patients' insurance status (insured or uninsured) and the numbers of procedures performed classified by neurosurgical procedural codes of the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM). Each neurosurgical procedure was grouped into 1 of 4 categories based on ICD-9-CM codes: 1) tumor, 2) other cranial/vascular, 3) shunts, and 4) spine. Comparisons were performed of the numbers of procedures performed and uninsured patients, before and after the implementation of the reform law. Data from the state of New York were used as a control. All data were controlled for population differences. RESULTS After 2008, there were declines in the numbers of uninsured patients who underwent neurosurgical procedures in Massachusetts in all 4 categories. The number of procedures performed for tumor and spine were unchanged, whereas other cranial/vascular procedures increased. Shunt procedures decreased after implementation of the reform law but exhibited a similar trend to the control group. In New York, the number of spine surgeries increased, as did the percentage of procedures performed on uninsured patients. Other cranial/vascular procedures decreased. CONCLUSIONS After the Massachusetts health care insurance reform, the number of uninsured individuals undergoing neurosurgical procedures significantly decreased for all categories, but more importantly, the total number of surgeries performed did not change dramatically. To the extent that trends in Massachusetts can predict the overall US experience, we can expect that some aspects of reimbursement may be positively impacted by the ACA. Neurosurgeons, who often treat patients with urgent conditions, may be affected differently than other specialists.
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    OMRT-9. Effect of Pre-Operative Stereotactic Radiosurgery on Brain Metastasis: Analysis of DNA and RNA Genomic Profiles from Phase-II Clinical Trial NCT03398694
    (Oxford University Press, 2021-07) Shireman, Jack; Huff, Wei; Monaco, Gina; Agrawal, Namita; Watson, Gordon; Dey, Mahua; Neurological Surgery, School of Medicine
    Background: With improved systemic therapy that has limited impact on the intracranial compartment, the incidence of brain metastasis (BM) from solid cancers is rising and negatively impacting patient’s overall survival (OS). Treatment varies based on presentation, however, for patients with <4 symptomatic BMs current clinical practice involves surgical resection followed by stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) to the resection cavity. Post-operative SRS is associated with increased risk of leptomeningeal disease (LMD) and local recurrence in the follow-up period. We hypothesize that pre-operative SRS will decrease the incidence of LMD as well as local recurrence and increase patient’s OS by delivering a lethal dose of radiation to tumor cells before they are disturbed by surgical resection. In a Phase II clinical trial (NCT03398694) we are treating patients with 1–4 symptomatic BMs with pre-operative SRS while collecting DNA and RNA sequencing data from core and peripheral edges of the resected tumor to examine the genomic effects of SRS on tumor. Methods: Post-SRS resected tumor specimens were divided into two groups: ‘center’ and ‘periphery’ with respect to the center of SRS treatment with periphery within 50% isodose line. Previously resected untreated BMs were used as control. DNA and RNA were isolated from all samples for sequencing. Conclusions: Our initial analyses show that pre-treatment with SRS, results in significant genomic changes at DNA and RNA levels throughout the tumor, in both center as well as periphery. Furthermore, significant transcriptomic differences were noted among matched samples between the central and peripheral SRS locations implicating differential effect of SRS dosing within a tumor. Initial gene ontological analysis on non-small cell lung cancer samples demonstrated an overexpression of WNT and BMP signaling pathways (p <.001, p<.01). These pathways are typically involved in neuronal development, hinting that adaptation to the brain microenvironment was occurring post SRS treatment.