JAMA Surgery

10/31/2026

Among patients listed for , those with had greater comorbidity burden at listing, including more diabetes and kidney dysfunction, despite identical biologic Model for End-Stage Liver Disease scores compared with matched patients without MASH. They also had worse long-term overall, waiting-list, and posttransplant mortality, indicating that comorbidities may contribute importantly to outcomes beyond liver disease severity alone.

This cohort study examines the comorbidities and long-term outcomes associated with metabolic dysfunction–associated steatohepatitis (MASH) in patients on the liver transplant waiting list.

10/30/2026

Across nonclinical learning activities, residents generally rated effectiveness lower than faculty, even when importance ratings were similar. Attending rounds and technique or operative simulation were viewed as highly important but showed some of the largest perceived gaps in effectiveness, which may help guide educational quality improvement efforts.

This study describes a comparison of faculty and resident perceptions of learning activities during surgery residency.

10/29/2026

📊 Among children and young adults with soft tissue sarcoma who underwent margin-negative resection within a risk-adapted treatment approach, local recurrence rates were low overall. Wider than 1-mm negative margins were associated with lower local recurrence risk, although close negative margins were associated with low recurrence in some clinical settings.

This nonrandomized clinical trial attempts to evaluate the impact of negative margin extent on local tumor control in children and young adult patients with nonrhabdomyosarcoma soft tissue sarcomas undergoing R0 resection as part of risk-adapted multimodality treatment.

10/29/2026

Patients diagnosed with atypical ductal hyperplasia, atypical lobular hyperplasia, or classic lobular carcinoma in situ ( ) should be counseled about elevated future risk and offered comprehensive risk assessment and risk-reducing strategies when appropriate. These guidelines indicate that atypical lobular hyperplasia and classic lobular carcinoma in situ can be safely observed when radiographic-pathologic concordance is established, whereas most atypical ductal hyperplasia cases identified on core biopsy should undergo diagnostic excision.

This Special Communication is the third installment about guidelines from organizations of surgeons, radiologists, and pathologists for the management of proliferative breast lesions with atypia and lobular carcinoma in situ.

10/28/2026

💬 Viewpoint: In cancers, anatomic staging remains foundational, but the article describes how molecular profiling, , and can refine patient selection, perioperative strategy, and recurrence monitoring.

This approach could individualize care for hepatocellular carcinoma, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, and cholangiocarcinoma beyond anatomy alone.

https://ja.ma/4BCEozY

10/28/2026

Among patients undergoing , women presented with more complex hernia phenotypes and experienced higher 30-day wound morbidity, including surgical site infection, surgical-site occurrence, and surgical-site occurrence requiring procedural intervention, than men.

Women also had higher recurrence at 2 and 3 years, although recurrence was similar at 1 year.

https://ja.ma/484EJhj

10/28/2026

How should extension studies to clinical trials be interpreted?

Some see them as an important source of evidence on long-term safety and treatment durability. Others question their validity and whether they should be considered trials at all.

💭 Where do you stand? Cast your vote in the latest JAMA+ Trials poll and share your perspective.

📊 Take the poll: https://ja.ma/4jLQbFE

10/28/2026

A deep learning model applied to wound photographs identified images suggestive of and showed clinical utility in decision curve analyses. If integrated into care, this approach may help prioritize wound image review and support earlier postoperative assessment.

This diagnostic/prognostic study uses postoperative wound photographs to develop and externally validate a deep learning model to detect wounds suggestive of surgical site infections.

10/27/2026

Among clinicians involved in for people living with , limited identification of cognitive impairment and inconsistent documentation in electronic health records complicated surgical decision-making. These findings indicate that communication with longitudinal clinicians and more consistent documentation may be relevant to supporting decisions about surgery.

This qualitative study explores clinician experiences with surgical decision-making when a patient has dementia.

10/26/2026

Among patients with resectable and borderline-resectable treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy, adding was associated with improved pathologic response, including more node-negative disease and higher R0 resection rates. However, it was not associated with improved event-free survival, overall survival, or reduced recurrence, indicating the limited effect of locoregional intensification in .

This cohort study investigates if the addition of radiotherapy to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, compared with neoadjuvant chemotherapy alone, is associated with an improvement in oncologic outcomes in patients undergoing resection for pancreatic cancer.