Surgery/Specialties Editor's Note A Transparency Market Research analysis predicts the global market for hip replacement implants will reach $9.1 billion by 2024, with a 3.9% compound annual growth rate, the March 17 Becker’s Spine Review reports. Fueling the growth are an expanding geriatric population, an increasing incidence of osteoarthritis, and technological…
Editor's Note In an interim final rule, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has delayed expansion of the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) bundled payment program and implementation of its bundled payment programs for cardiac care from July 1 to October 1, 2017, the March 20 Modern…
Editor's Note Managing appendicitis with antibiotics on an outpatient basis shows promise as a safe, effective, lower-cost alternative to surgery, this study finds. Of 30 patients involved in the trial, 15 were randomized to antibiotics and 14 to appendectomy. A total of 14 patients in the antibiotic group were discharged from…
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on March 18 issued a Safety Alert for Abbott Vascular’s (Santa Clara, California) Absorb GT1 Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold (BVS). The alert was issued to inform healthcare providers of an increased rate of major adverse cardiac events in patients receiving the BVS, when…
Editor's Note Patients who live alone can recover effectively and safely at home after total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA), finds this study presented March 14 at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in San Diego. Of 638 patients analyzed (364 THA,…
Total joint procedures are gradually moving to ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) as technology, medical expertise, and cost pressures combine to make the ASC an increasingly attractive alternative to an acute care hospital. The key to success for these and other complex procedures, experts say, is a combination of careful planning,…
Editor's Note Bariatric surgery performed before hip or knee replacement can reduce in-hospital and 90-day postoperative complications, finds this study presented March 14 at the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons annual meeting in San Diego. Compared with morbidly obese patients who did not have bariatric surgery before joint replacement, those…
Editor's Note The use of inpatient rehabilitation compared with a monitored home-based program did not improve mobility at 26 weeks after total knee surgery, this study finds. In the study, 81 patients received 10 days of hospital inpatient rehabilitation followed by an 8-week home-based program, and 87 patients received only…
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on March 8 issued a Safety Alert about the use of balloon angioplasty devices to perform an experimental procedure, called transvascular autonomic modulation (TVAM). TVAM consists of threading a catheter into a patient’s venous system, such as the jugular vein, where a…
Editor's Note Opioid overdose is a rare but potentially lethal complication after elective inpatient surgical procedures, and the incidence is increasing, this study finds. Of 11,317,958 patients analyzed, 9,458 (0.1%) had a postoperative opioid overdose, and the frequency doubled during the study period (2001 to 2011) from 0.6 to 1.1…
