Objective: The effectiveness of teaching operative notes in surgical resident training program at King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah was studied. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective study done at Department of Surgery, King Abdulaziz University Hospital to evaluate the effect of teaching the surgical residents how to write operative notes. Twenty-one residents were asked to write operative notes of appendicectomy. Their operative notes were evaluated for medical record number (MRN), date and time of the operation, preoperative and postoperative diagnosis, names of surgeon, assistant, and anesthetist, name of the operation, incision, findings, closure, hemostasis, estimated blood loss, whether histopathology specimen was sent to the pathology department or not, postoperative orders, whether the patient went to the recovery room in a satisfactory condition or not, and signature of the operating surgeon. Two months of effective teaching of operative notes was given to them. They were again asked to write operative notes of appendicectomy. Notes were collected and studied and comparison was made with previous notes. Legibility of the operative notes was also studied. Results: In our study, we found that there was improvement of 29-39.9% in recording MRN and the date of operation by our residents after they were taught the art of writing operation notes. There was marginal improvement (4.7%) in stating whether it was elective or emergency operation. Documentation of surgeon's name, assistant's name, and anesthetist's name improved to 12.4-32.8%. Writing the name of the procedure and pre- and postoperative diagnosis improved to 31%. Details of the procedure such as position of patient and incision improved marginally to 5.9%. Mentioning the findings and description of the procedure showed no improvement, as it was 100% before teaching. Documenting hemostasis, estimated blood loss, and transfer to recovery room improved to 58.4%; however, there was no improvement in writing post-op orders and histopathology sent to the pathology department.Improvement of signature was only 9%. Conclusion: Effective teaching of how to write operative notes helps in the training of surgical residents.

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Pancreatic ductal calculi are rare and most often associated with chronic pancreatitis. Radiological features of chronic pancreatitis are readily evident in the presence of these calculi. We present the case of a 66-year old woman who presented to our emergency department with severe upper abdominal pain and vomiting. She had been having repeated attacks of similar but milder upper abdominal pain, for which she would visit her general practitioner, and be treated for gastritis. This time however the pain was excruciating and accompanied by vomiting. She was a known diabetic for which she was receiving treatment. Both abdominal ultrasound and contrast enhanced computerized tomography scan of the abdomen revealed an atrophic pancreas, and a dilated pancreatic duct filled with an enormous load of calculi. Laparotomy and the Frey procedure which consists of coring out of the pancreatic head and longitudinal pancreaticojejunostomy were done.

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Jejunal diverticula are rare and usually asymptomatic. However, they may cause chronic non-specific symptoms or rarely lead to an acute presentation. Here, we report a rare case of a child presenting with a perforated congenital jejunal diverticulum. We report a case of 10-year-old female who presented with severe acute abdominal pain, repeated vomiting, hypotension, and tachycardia of 1 day duration. Chest X-ray showed free air under diaphragm and abdominal X-ray displayed dilated bowel loops. Laboratory investigations showed leukocytosis and hyperamylasemia. After intravenous (IV) fluid resuscitation, diagnostic laparoscopy was performed that detected the presence of perforated solitary giant jejunal diverticulum, about 25 cm from the duodenojejunal junction, in addition to diffuse peritonitis. We had to convert to laparotomy due to the presence of huge amount of undigested food particles. Resection of the diverticulum-bearing segment and anastomosis was done along with thorough peritoneal decontamination and washout. Solitary giant jejunal diverticulum is a rare condition which can present with chronic vague abdominal pain and altered bowel habits, and can present acutely with complications as perforation with significant morbidity.

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Primary hepatic carcinoid is a rare disease and requires meticulous workup for the search of primary in other organs. A 56-year-old male, known hypertensive, presented in November 2007 with epigastric discomfort and indigestion on and off for 2 months. There was no history of diarrhea, flushing attacks, or cardiac symptoms. He had no family history of carcinoids or any other chronic disease. On examination, he was afebrile, pulse rate was 83/min, and BP was 166/95 mm Hg. Per-abdominal examination revealed mild tenderness in the epigastrium and enlarged liver. Computerized tomography abdomen showed a capsulated huge liver lesion (11 × 10 × 13 cm) in the left lobe of the liver, displacing the left hepatic artery, while rest of the liver was normal. There was no evidence of carcinoid tumor in any other organ. He was operated and left hepatic lobectomy was done. Histology showed primary hepatic carcinoid. He is being followed up in our OPD till date and has shown no recurrence. Primary hepatic carcinoid is a rare disease which is not associated with the symptoms of carcinoid syndrome in majority of patients, and therefore should be diagnosed after extensive search for primary in the other organs. Ultimate diagnosis should be made by histology and immunohistochemistry.

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Sigmoid volvulus is a rare and potentially life-threatening complication of Hirschsprung' disease. A young patient presenting with sigmoid volvulus is not common and Hirschsprung's disease should be suspected in patients in this age group presenting with otherwise unexplained colonic volvulus. Here we report a rare and interesting case of Hirschsprung's disease presenting as sigmoid volvulus in a 15-year-old girl and the sufferings of the patient due to this uncommon entity.

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Background: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is the standard of care for symptomatic cholelithiasis, but is associated with a higher incidence of bile duct injuries than the open approach. We evaluated a multidisciplinary approach for managing these injuries after LC. Materials and Methods: From April 2006 to August 2011, all patients who developed bile duct injury after LC and were treated by the hepatobiliary team of Al-Hada Armed Forces Hospital, Taif, Saudi Arabia were included in our study. If an injury was suspected intraoperatively, intraoperative cholangiography was performed; thereafter, if the injury was confirmed, immediate laparotomy and primary repair or hepaticojejunostomy (H-J) involving lowering of the hilar plate were performed. Injuries occurring postoperatively were treated by endoscopic cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) to diagnose the type of Strasberg injury. Strasberg type A injuries were managed endoscopically, and more advanced cases underwent open surgery. Results: Of 30 females and 18 males (mean age, 45 years; range, 18-90 years), 6 cases of bile duct injuries were discovered intraoperatively. Of these, two were classified as type C and underwent primary repair with internal stenting. The other four were classified as type E and were treated by Roux-en-Y H-J reconstruction. Forty-two cases of bile duct injuries presented postoperatively, including 18 Strasberg type A and 24 Strasberg type E injuries. Type A injuries were treated with ERCP and stenting, and six with endoscopic removal of a retained stone. Of the 28 patients who underwent H-J, 20 underwent the technique involving lowering of the hilar plate. Of these, three subsequently developed anastomotic strictures and were treated with percutaneous transhepatic balloon dilatation. There were no mortalities. The mean follow-up was for 36 months. Conclusion: Early referral to a specialized surgeon and a multidisciplinary approach help manage bile duct injury after LC in all patients with an acceptable low stricture rate.

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