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Peer review report 1 on “The effect of economic downturn on The volume of surgical procedures: A systematic review”
International Journal of Surgery 37 Supplement 1 (2017) S387
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
International Journal of Surgery journal homepage: www.journal-surgery.net
Peer Review Report
Peer review report 1 on “The effect of economic downturn on The volume of surgical procedures: A systematic review” 1. Original submission 1.1. Recommendation Major Revision. 1.2. Comments to the author The authors have put in some great effort into this systematic review on the effect of economic downturn on the volume of surgical procedures. They have searched through the database, found 508 studies, included and analyzed only 12 studies, and found that economic downturn is associated to the decrease of surgical procedure volume in both elective and non-elective cases, but not in the case of vasectomy, caesarean section for male baby, some cosmetic surgery in UK and joint replacement. Although the findings are interesting and the manuscript is a good read, there are some points need further improvement/clarification. 1. In the manuscript, the authors used male cesarean section to indicate ‘caserean section for male baby’. Please kindly describe the procedure in a more appropriate term than the 'male caserean procedure'. 2. The authors discussed that the Plastic surgeons may change their practice of comestic surgery to more of MIS to counteract
DOI of published article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsu.2017.06.036. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsu.2017.06.065 1743-9191
the economic downturn. It is worthwhile to describe what the “MIS” means. Is it laparoscopic cholecystectomy? Laparoscopic hernia repair? 3. The authors observed that more serious adverse events and mortality during economic downturn and hypothesized it could be due to the delay or patient foregoing screening test and led to delayed diagnosis. From another aspect, will economic downturn and budget constraint resulted in generic or cheaper consumables usage that led to complications, such as vascular stent or GI stapler malfunction and anastomosis leakage? 4. Please kindly description of ‘ASAPS’ in Table 2, source of data column. It is advisable to state the name in proper before using the abbreviation. 5. Figure 3 is not in its proper form. There is only 3 parts in a pie chart without any numbers/data. Thank you. Feng Yih Chai Hospital Keningau, Department of Surgery, KM5, Jalan Apin-Apin Keningau, Peti Surat 11, Keningau, 89000, Malaysia E-mail address: [email protected].
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
International Journal of Surgery journal homepage: www.journal-surgery.net
Peer Review Report
Peer review report 1 on “The effect of economic downturn on The volume of surgical procedures: A systematic review” 1. Original submission 1.1. Recommendation Major Revision. 1.2. Comments to the author The authors have put in some great effort into this systematic review on the effect of economic downturn on the volume of surgical procedures. They have searched through the database, found 508 studies, included and analyzed only 12 studies, and found that economic downturn is associated to the decrease of surgical procedure volume in both elective and non-elective cases, but not in the case of vasectomy, caesarean section for male baby, some cosmetic surgery in UK and joint replacement. Although the findings are interesting and the manuscript is a good read, there are some points need further improvement/clarification. 1. In the manuscript, the authors used male cesarean section to indicate ‘caserean section for male baby’. Please kindly describe the procedure in a more appropriate term than the 'male caserean procedure'. 2. The authors discussed that the Plastic surgeons may change their practice of comestic surgery to more of MIS to counteract
DOI of published article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsu.2017.06.036. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsu.2017.06.065 1743-9191
the economic downturn. It is worthwhile to describe what the “MIS” means. Is it laparoscopic cholecystectomy? Laparoscopic hernia repair? 3. The authors observed that more serious adverse events and mortality during economic downturn and hypothesized it could be due to the delay or patient foregoing screening test and led to delayed diagnosis. From another aspect, will economic downturn and budget constraint resulted in generic or cheaper consumables usage that led to complications, such as vascular stent or GI stapler malfunction and anastomosis leakage? 4. Please kindly description of ‘ASAPS’ in Table 2, source of data column. It is advisable to state the name in proper before using the abbreviation. 5. Figure 3 is not in its proper form. There is only 3 parts in a pie chart without any numbers/data. Thank you. Feng Yih Chai Hospital Keningau, Department of Surgery, KM5, Jalan Apin-Apin Keningau, Peti Surat 11, Keningau, 89000, Malaysia E-mail address: [email protected].