Surgery/Specialties Editor's Note The American College of Surgeons (ACS) on January 31 opened enrollment for participation in its Children’s Surgery Verification Quality Improvement Program. The program was developed to improve the quality of children’s surgical care by creating a system to match each child’s individual surgical needs with a care environment…
Editor's Note Nerve blocks in total knee patients were associated with statistically significant reductions in length of stay and readmissions, but no difference in emergency department visits or in-hospital falls, this Canadian study finds. In the analysis of 178,214 patients, adjusted: mean hospital stay was 4.7 days for patients with…
Editor's Note Advances in diagnostic imaging technology have resulted in more trauma patients being diagnosed with blunt cerebrovascular injuries, which has resulted in a significant decline in stroke and mortality, this study finds. From 1985 to the end of 2015, the percentage of blunt trauma patients diagnosed with blunt cerebrovascular…
Editor's Note Intraoperative adverse events (iAEs) occur often and have a significant negative impact on surgeons’ wellbeing, this study finds. Barriers to transparency include fear of litigation and absence of a well-defined reporting system. A survey was conducted of all surgeons at three major teaching hospitals connected with the Harvard…
When leaders at Memorial Healthcare, a 154-bed community hospital in Owosso, Michigan, wanted to get a jump on preparing for bundled payments, they chose to focus on total hip and knee surgery. Creating a perioperative surgical home (PSH) for this patient population paid off in enhanced patient satisfaction and reductions…
An ambulatory surgery center (ASC) looking to expand its market may want to add new procedures, but only after careful consideration of resource investment versus ultimate benefit. In the first of a three-part series, OR Manager explores surgical specialties that appear to show promise for the outpatient setting. One of…
Editor's Note In this study of inpatient and outpatient open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) for ankle fractures, researchers found a reduced risk of 30-day medical morbidities with outpatient ORIF and no differences in surgical morbidity, reoperations, and readmissions between the two groups. The findings demonstrate that performing ORIF surgery…
Editor's Note A new survey shows the US implantable device market is expected to reach $73.9 billion by 2018, the January 6 Becker’s Spine Review reports. Among the survey findings: The market was valued at $43.1 billion in 2011. An increasing aging population, number of chronic degenerative diseases, and healthcare…
Editor's Note In this study, the composite outcomes of death, stroke, myocardial infarction, renal failure, or repeat revascularization at 5 year follow-up were similar for patients who had off-pump and on-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) procedures. The researchers also found no significant difference in cost or quality of life…
Editor's Note This meta-analysis found that the overall rate of attrition among general surgery residents was 18%, and that the most common causes of attrition were uncontrollable lifestyle and choosing to join another specialty. Of 19,821 general surgery residents involved in the analysis, attrition was significantly higher for females compared…
