In the December 2022 issue of Annals of Surgery, a few corrections were needed in the article by Klingbeil et al, “The Effect of Hyperosmolar Water-Soluble Contrast for the Management of Adhesive Small Bowel Obstruction: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.”

The first correction involves Fig. 1. The caption reads:

FIGURE 1: Forest plot demonstrating the results of the meta-analysis for HLOS in patients not undergoing surgery.

This is an error. It should read:

FIGURE 1: Forest plot demonstrating the results of the meta-analysis for HLOS.

The Authors apologize for these errors.

The second correction involves supplement Figure 2 reporting on the number of operations performed in the WSC vs control groups for the treatment of aSBO. In the data table used for performing the meta-analysis, 2 articles numerical results were transposed: DiSavario and Rahmani. When corrected the results of this analysis do change. The new forest plot that should replace supplement Figure 2.

Because of these changes, several results in the main text need to be changed as follows:

The paragraph describing these results currently reads:

“The proportion of patients who underwent surgery was reported in all but one RCT and in all of the observational studies. In the remaining ten RCTs, there were 429 episodes of aSBO occurring in 420 patients treated with WSC, 85 (19.8%) requiring surgery. There were 415 aSBO episodes in 409 control patients, of whom, 89 (21.4%) underwent surgery. Random effects meta-analysis showed no association between treatment with WSC or control for the number of patients who ultimately underwent surgery (risk ratio 0.90, 95% CI: 0.53–1.55) (see Supplement Digital Content: Supplement Fig. 2, https://links.lww.com/SLA/E26).”

Should be updated to the following:

“The proportion of patients who underwent surgery was reported in all but one RCT and in all of the observational studies. In the remaining ten RCTs, there were 429 episodes of aSBO occurring in 420 patients treated with WSC, 69 (16.0%) requiring surgery. There were 415 aSBO episodes in 409 control patients, of whom, 105 (25.3%) underwent surgery. Random effects meta-analysis showed a significant association between treatment with WSC or control for the number of patients who ultimately underwent surgery (risk ratio 0.51, 95% CI: 0.32–0.82) (see Supplement Digital Content: Supplement Fig. 2, https://links.lww.com/SLA/E26).”

The Discussion should change from:

“The risk of surgery was lower in WSC-treated patients in the observational studies, an effect not observed in the RCTs.”

To the following replacement text:

“The risk of surgery was lower in WSC-treated patients in both the observational studies and RCTs.”

This paragraph in the Discussion section should be removed:

Because the risk of bias is difficult to control in observational research, we analyzed RCTs and observational studies separately. The proportions of patients undergoing surgery differed between the study types and only in the observational studies did WSC have a statistically significant effect on reducing the proportion of patients undergoing surgery.

This sentence should change from

“In the RCTs, ~20% of patients receiving WSC underwent surgery as compared…”

To the following replacement text:

“In the RCTs, ~16% of patients receiving WSC underwent surgery as compared…”

These corrections do not alter the main findings or conclusions of the study. Rather, they serve to enhance the accuracy and clarity of the information presented.

1. Klingbeil KD, Wu JX, Osuna-Garcia A, et al. The effect of hyperosmolar water-soluble contrast for the management of adhesive small bowel obstruction: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Ann Surg, 2022;276:981–988.