Review for 10.1186/s12876-022-02377-9 (2022)

Reviewer’s report
Title: 
Situs inversus totalis with local metastasis of gallbladder carcinoma and
variation of the common hepatic artery: a case report
Version: 
1 
Date: 
27 Mar 2022
Reviewer: 
Firdaus Hayati
Reviewer's report:
Title
Authors
Authors are from the qualified and relevant fields of hepatobiliary surgery.
There are no radiologist or anatomic pathologist in this authorship team, yet they
can be acknowledged in the acknowledgement section. 
Abstract
Page 2, line 11: "Situs inversus totalis (SIT) is a rare abnormal complication", I
believe this is a rare congenital anomaly. It is not a sequelae of any acquired
condition. I suggest to change to rare congenital anomaly.
Page 2, line 12: "Most SIT cases occur concurrently with tumors", any reference
for this? This is an important fact.
Page 2, line 15: The term "jumping metastasis", is it a standard terminology? If it
is not, suggest to change the term.
Page 3, line 2,3: "Then, we 3 checked this patient with detailed examination and
treated with careful surgery", suggest to revise this sentence. It does not sound
scientific. I believe, this sentence "Then, we checked this patient with detailed
examination and treated with careful surgery" is unnecessary as it is a standard
procedure. Suggest to be economical in scientific writing.
Page 3, line 4,5: Suggest to reword the sentence, "…the presence of SIT,
gallbladder and pancreatic tail tumor and a variation of the common hepatic
artery (CHA)". It does not appear to be scientific merit in portraying a diagnosis
of concomitant tumors of gallbladder and pancreas in the presence of SIT.
Page 3, line 7,8: Any medical term for these procedures, "radical
cholecystectomy, complete pancreas, duodenum and spleen resection as well as
hepatic artery-splenic artery reconstruction."? Suggest "radical cholecystectomy,
total pancreatectomy, splenectomy and hepatic artery-splenic artery
reconstruction."
Page 3, line 9: Suggest to change "Further analyses" to "Histological analyses"
revealed metastasis of the gallbladder carcinoma into the pancreas. 
Page 3, line 13-15: Conclusion does not reflect the current case presentation.
Kindly revise. 
Keywords
Must follow MeSH Browser. Suggest to orientate according to the alphabetical
orders.
Background
SIT needs thorough preoperative imaging of the involved organs such as the
biliary system and periportal vasculature. It is not only challenging in malignant
cases, yet benign cases as well. Meticulous dissection technique and a consistent
awareness regarding the mirrored orientation is crucial to avoid any unnecessary
complications. 
Suggested references if the authors think they are important and beneficial.
Gan DEY, Alagoo D, Chan KH, Choi RXY, Sellappan H, Sharif MS, et al.
Choledochal cyst and aberrant biliary configuration along with situs inversus
totalis: a case report. Pan African Medical Journal. 2021;38:398
Che Ani MF, Ismail MAT, Abdul Rashid NF, Hayati F. Concurrent hollow and
visceral organs traumatic injury secondary to metal shrapnel penetration in a
male with situs inversus totalis: A case report. Trauma Case Rep.
2022;38:100626
Page 4, line 13: the words "rid of" is improper. Suggest to change to the word
"avoid"
Case presentation
Page 5, line 4: Suggest to include other important findings especially clinical
examination and biochemical investigations. Certain importation information
such as cachexia, jaundice, abdominal mass, obstructive jaundice from liver
function test deserve to be highlighted even they were negative. 
Page 5, line 7: "had moved" meaning that it was located at the normal position
initially. Suggest to revise. 
Page 5, line 12-14: I am not sure whether the history of detailed family members
undergoing screening for CT is crucial or not, but in this case it is rarely
valuable. Unless, we are referring to familial disease such as FAP or MTC etc.
Suggest to remove, unless the authors can justify.
Page 6: Certain situation, using a passive voice appears more scientific rather
than active voice sentences. 
Page 7, line 5: Any justification of pancreatic cancer metastasis, not just a
synchronous double cancer?
Mori H, Iida H, Maehira H, Kitamura N, Shimizu T, Tani M. Synchronous
primary gallbladder and pancreatic cancer associated with congenital biliary
dilatation and pancreaticobiliary maljunction. Surg Case Rep. 2017;3(1):113. 
Page 8, line 2-5: it is good to highlight on the possibility of postoperative
complications and subsequent progress.
Discussion
Page 8, line 10,11: The authors also stated that there is no familial involvement
in SIT.
Page 8, line 15,16: I agree that this is the first paper to highlight that. There is no
other case in during literature search.
Page 9, line 3,4: I totally agree with the sentence on the importance of
preoperative imaging studies and diagnosis.
Page 9, line 13,14: I totally agree with the sentence on implication of wrong
judgement.
The discussion had discussed very well on the anatomical anomalies.
Conclusion
The given conclusion is as in general situation, but readers want to know what
will be the take-home message from this case alone. Kindly revise that.
Acknowledgement
Page 15, line 9-12: Suggest to acknowledge the radiology and anatomic
pathology team members.
Table 1
It is nicely aligned according to the year of occurrence.
Figure 1
The figure of liver, biliary, duodenum, IVC and aorta - please kindly get the
approval of using the figures. They are subjected to the copyright issue, unless
the figures were drawn personally by the authors.
Suggest to provide individual figures rather than many figures in 1 picture. The
figures must have a magnification of 300 dpi min with 10 cm shortest length.
This is to ensure the high quality of the produced figures.
Figure 1D and 1E - the H&E magnification were not stated. The given histology
figures are very blur and not well visualised.
Any images of immunohistochemistry?
Thank you. 
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