Featured papers in the October Issue.

In the October Issue of the American Journal of Surgery (AJS,) we feature the manuscripts listed below:

Delving Deeper into Disparity: The Impact of Health Literacy on the Surgical Care of Breast Cancer Patients. Portelli Tremont and colleagues summarize the current knowledge regarding health literacy in breast cancer. They identify future directions for research and potential intervention in breast surgical oncology with an editorial from Lauren Theiss and Dan Chu..

Post-Thyroidectomy Emergency Room Visits and Readmissions: Assessment from the Collaborative Endocrine Surgery Quality Improvement Program (CESQIP). Taye and colleagues analyze independent factors associated with post-thyroidectomy emergency room visits and hospital readmissions. There is an editorial from Toni Beninato and Amanda M. Laird.

Surgeon Experience and Opioid Prescribing. Santosa and colleagues evaluate the effects of surgeon characteristics such as surgeon experience on differences in opioid prescribing after surgery. They demonstrate that surgeon characteristics such as cumulative years of practice contribute to differences in prescribing behavior, with an editorial from Willemijn Schäfer and Jonah Stulberg.

Significant Morbidity Is Associated With Proximal Fecal Diversion Among High-Risk Patients Who Undergo Colectomy: A NSQIP Analysis. Chang and colleagues perform a review of the NSQIP database to examine the impact of a diverting loop ileostomy (DLI) in high-risk patients. They found that significant thirty-day morbidity exists with a DLI among high-risk colectomy patients with minimal benefit in anastomotic leak rates. There is an editorial from Drew Gunnells and Greg Kennedy

Robotic intraperitoneal onlay versus totally extraperitoneal (TEP) retromuscular mesh ventral hernia repair: A Propensity score matching analysis of short-term outcomes. Kudsi and colleagues present data suggesting that Robotic TEP-RM repair has better early postoperative outcomes for ventral hernias, suggesting that it may be preferable over robotic IPOM repair. Ajita Prabhu provides an invited commentary.

Eight “My Thoughts/My Surgical Practice” Articles. We are highlighting these eight thought-provoking editorials: COVID 19: Surgery & the question of race, Reforming our general surgery residency program at an urban level 1 Trauma Center during the COVID-19 pandemic: Towards maintaining resident safety and wellbeing, COVID-19 and surgical training in Italy: Residents and young consultants perspectives from the battlefield, The volume of recyclable polyethylene terephthalate plastic in operating rooms, Immersive Virtual Reality in surgery and medical education: diving into the future, Educational benefits of an acute care surgery rotation during the medical student surgical clerkship, Do We Know Our Patients' Goals? Evaluating Preoperative Discussions in Emergency Surgery and General Surgery Trainee Perception of Early Specialization Programs.