What general surgery is researching now
The topics gaining the most ground, ranked by the PubDaily Trend Score: new research, stronger evidence, new trials and new guidelines. 291 topics in 22 specialties, updated 18 Oct 2026.
Monthly reportThe fastest-rising topics in medicine: October 2026Read →Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS)
Perioperative care pathways designed to speed recovery.
AI and surgical video
Computer vision and AI applied to surgical video and intraoperative decisions.
Robotic general surgery
Robot-assisted cholecystectomy, hernia repair and colorectal surgery.
Key point: Robotic-assisted surgery was associated with a modestly shorter hospital stay and similar complications, readmissions, and reoperations versus laparoscopy in obese colorectal cancer patients.
Prehabilitation
Exercise, nutrition and psychological preparation before surgery.
Neoadjuvant therapy in pancreatic cancer
Chemotherapy or chemoradiation before surgery for pancreatic cancer.
Key point: After induction chemotherapy, neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy is used for borderline tumours to increase chances of complete resection, though survival benefit has not been demonstrated.
Antibiotics for appendicitis
Treating uncomplicated appendicitis with antibiotics instead of surgery.
Key point: Non-operative management of acute uncomplicated appendicitis was associated with high long-term failure rates and significant risk of subsequent appendectomy.
See all 12 general surgery topics
Every rising topic, with the papers behind it. Free for doctors.
How the Trend Score works
Four signals
Growth in new papers (35%), growth in randomised trials, meta-analyses and systematic reviews (25%), new clinical trials registered (20%), and new guidelines and consensus statements (20%), each over the last 12 months against the 12 before.
A score out of 100
Each signal is ranked against every topic we follow, so a score of 90 means the topic is ahead of about 90% of them. Rising fast: 80 and above. Rising: 55 to 79. Emerging: fewer than 100 papers the year before, too few to rank.
What it does not tell you
More research on a topic is not evidence that a treatment works. Open a topic to read the papers and guidelines themselves. Counts come from PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov.