Surgery/Specialties Editor's Note Targeting a patient’s mean arterial pressure (MAP) during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) by monitoring cerebral blood flow autoregulation may reduce the incidence of delirium after cardiac surgery in older patients, this Johns Hopkins study finds. In this analysis of 199 patients, the incidence of delirium was significantly greater in…
Editor's Note Stryker announced on May 20 that the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) granted premarket approval for its Neuroform Atlas stent system for intracranial aneurysms, the May 20 MassDevice reports. The self-expanding nitinol stent can now be used with neurovascular embolization coils to treat patients with saccular wide-necked…
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on May 21 released a letter to healthcare professionals about the most recent, interim post-approval study (PAS) results for the Abiomed Impella RP System, a percutaneous heart pump for right heart support. The latest interim results show a lower survival rate…
Editor's Note Regional anesthesia was not associated with decreased readmission rates and costs after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) in this study. In this analysis of 138,362 privately insured TKA patients 18-64 years of age, the adjusted 90-day readmission rate was 1.8% for those who did not receive regional anesthesia compared…
Perioperative services departments have been slow to adopt the black boxes used in the aviation industry, partly because it can take a large team of experts hours to analyze data collected by the box. However, the team behind a surgical black box is using artificial intelligence (AI) to significantly cut…
Editor's Note Hospitals that perform better on measures to prevent postoperative complications also have better performance on measures of profitability, this study finds. Improved patient safety performance was associated with higher net patient revenue for five of seven Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) measures, including starting and stopping preventive antibiotics…
Editor's Note This multicenter study demonstrated an association between intraoperative staff movements and door openings with risk of surgical site infections (SSIs). In this study of 13 ORs in 10 hospitals, performing cardiac and total hip or knee replacement surgery, door openings were assessed by sensors fixed on the doors.…
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Physician Compare website contains quality information on just 23.3% of the more than 1 million physicians who care for Medicare patients, this study finds. A total of 76.6% of physician had no performance data, and almost none (99.7%) listed on…
Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on May 7 issued a Safety Alert on the risk for premature battery depletion in nearly 132,000 biventricular and conventional cardiac resynchronization therapy implantable pacemakers by Medtronic. The FDA is aware of three patients in which a battery fully drained because of…
Editor's Note Researchers have developed an online app that patients and surgeons can use to guide preoperative planning and provide predictive data for how a patient’s ventral hernia repair will turn out. The basis of the app is a tool named the “Outcomes Reporting App for CLinical and Patient Engagement”…
