Surgery/Specialties Editor's Note In this national study, physician burnout, fatigue, and work unit safety grades were associated with major medical errors. Of 6,695 physicians in active practice surveyed, 6,586 provided information: 54.3% reported symptoms of burnout 32.8% reported excessive fatigue 6.5% reported recent suicidal ideation 3.9% reported a poor or failing…
Editor's Note In this study, cataract surgery was associated with a patient’s reduced subsequent risk of being in a serious traffic crash as a driver. This analysis of 559,546 patients who had cataract surgery in at least one eye found that the crash rate decreased from 2.36 to 2.14 per…
Editor's Note In this study, many patients reported unused opioids after joint and spine surgery, infrequent use of nonopioid analgesics, and lack of knowledge on safe opioid storage and disposal. Of 140 patients analyzed, 35% were taking preoperative opioids. Among those who stopped taking opioids after surgery, possession of unused…
Editor's Note Patients with diabetes are more likely to have adverse outcomes after surgery, and greater risks are associated with increasing HbA1c levels, this study finds. Of 7,565 patients analyzed, 30% had diabetes and 37% had prediabetes. After adjustments, diabetes was linked to increased: 6-month mortality (9% in patients with…
Editor's Note Malnourished hospitalized surgical and medical patients who participated in a nutrition quality improvement (QI) program had improved readmission rates and length of stay (LOS), but surgical patients had a significantly greater reduction in readmissions than medical patients, in this study. Of 1,269 patients analyzed, 288 were surgical patients…
Editor's Note In patients with traumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) after traffic collisions, advanced life support (ALS) performed by physicians was associated with increased chance of 1-month survival compared with ALS or basic life support (BLS) performed by emergency medical services (EMS) personnel, this Japanese study finds. Of 4,328 patients…
Editor's Note In this study, perioperative red blood cell (RBC) transfusions were significantly associated with development of new or progressive postoperative venous thromboembolism (VTE) within 30 days of a surgical procedure. Of 750,937 patients included in the analysis, 47,410 (6.3%) received at lest one perioperative RBC transfusion. Of these, 6,309…
Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on June 14 issued a Safety Alert for compounded drugs containing triamcinolone and moxifloxacin by Guardian Pharmacy Services (Dallas, Texas). At least 43 patients have reported adverse events after receiving eye injections of the compounded triamcinolone and moxifloxacin drug during cataract surgery.…
Editor's Note The American Heart Association (AHA) and Joint Commission are partnering to enhance cardiovascular patient care through a range of disease-specific hospital certification programs, the AHA announced on June 11. Both organizations are expanding their 15-year relationship in stroke certification to in-hospital cardiovascular patient care. The expansion will consolidate…
Editor's Note Increased use of neuraxial anesthesia for total hip and knee patients was linked to lower hospitalization costs in this study. National data on 808,237 total knee and 371,607 total hip replacements were used in the analysis. Multivariable associations were measured between hospital neuraxial anesthesia volume (quartiles) and outcomes…
