A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis on the Impact of Preserving the Hepatic Branch of the Vagus Nerve in Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeries
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Background: Upper gastrointestinal surgeries encompass procedures on the esophagus, stomach, liver, pancreas, and gallbladder. To access the surgical area, it is standard to dissect the hepatogastric ligament, transecting the hepatic branch of the vagus nerve contained within it. Yet, the hepatic branch, which innervates the liver and gallbladder, contributes to digestion, bile secretion, and glucose metabolism. Hence, recent surgical studies have explored the potential benefits of hepatic branch preservation in comparison to non-preservation. This systematic review and meta-analysis endeavors to compile and analyze the outcomes of these studies. Methods: PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, and Cochrane, were searched for cohort studies and randomized control trials comparing hepatic nerve preservation and division during upper gastrointestinal surgery in adults, up to April 2023. Two independent reviewers evaluated abstracts and full-text reviews, extracted pertinent information, and conducted risk-of-bias assessments using the RoB 2 and Newcastle-Ottawa instruments. Results: Thirteen studies involving 3001 participants were included for meta-analysis. Hepatic branch preservation was linked to a decrease in appetite loss (OR 0.04, 95% CI 0.01-0.18), reflux symptoms (OR 0.16, 95% CI 0.06-0.43) and gallstone formation (OR 0.25, 95% CI 0.09-0.69). However, preservation was associated with an increased incidence of Clavien-Dindo Grade 2 complications (OR 1.73, 95% CI 1.01-2.96) in gastrectomies. Conclusion: Hepatic branch preservation is associated with favorable post-surgical metabolic outcomes, notably appetite preservation. This may be due to the hepatic branch’s role in facilitating brain-liver crosstalk, thus, influencing homeostatic processes like appetite control and glucose metabolism. Reduced gallstone incidence is likely due to preservation of gallbladder motility and function, achieved through retention of parasympathetic innervation.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.014 | 0.036 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.003 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.020 | 0.041 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.008 | 0.009 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.004 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.004 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".