Surgery/Specialties Editor's Note Thomas King, MD, an orthopedic surgeon at the Knee, Hip & Shoulder Center, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has developed a process for total knee and hip replacements that allows many patients to leave the same day after surgery. He uses a combination of a minimally invasive technique, regional anesthesia,…
A highlight of this year’s OR Manager Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, was an interactive hybrid OR exhibit with products from 15 companies. During a special Town Hall on Thursday, October 8, members of the Hybrid OR Steering Committee answered questions from conference attendees seeking information about what’s involved in planning…
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration on October 2 categorized the recall of PROFEMUR Neck Varus/Valgus CoCr 8 degree, Part number PHAC 1254, by MicroPort Orthopedics as Class I, the most serious. The company has received reports of unexpected fractures after surgery related to this modular neck. If the…
Editor's Note Postoperative hip fracture patients are more likely to be successfully discharged home if they are rehabilitated in centers that care for at least 25 hip fracture patients per year, this study finds. Successful discharge was 43.7% for high-volume facilities (> 24 admissions/year) vs 18.8% for low-volume facilities (1-6…
Editor's Note A surgeon’s transformational leadership skills were associated with improved OR team behavior, in this study. Each one-point increase in a surgeon’s transformational score corresponded to three times more information-sharing behaviors and nearly five and a half times more voice behaviors among the team members. With each one-point increase…
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on September 28, issued a safety alert for cranial perforators with an automatic clutch mechanism. Most cranial perforators are designed to automatically stop drilling after penetrating the skull to prevent the tip from unintentionally drilling into the brain. However this clutch mechanism…
Editor's Note Incentivizing surgeons to standardize surgical supplies led to dramatic cost savings in this study. A shared-savings program that returned 50% of money saved on surgical supplies to the surgery division realized a total cost-savings of $893,865. A total of $446,932 was shared with 15 surgery divisions. Quality of…
Editor's Note This is the first study to use a human factors and systems engineering approach to evaluate contributors to readmissions after complex surgical procedures. Previous studies on readmissions have neglected the patient perspective, the authors say. Factors identified by patients and clinician providers that may have contributed to readmissions…
Editor's Note Hip fracture surgery was associated with a higher risk of mortality and morbidity than elective total hip replacement (THR) even after adjustment for age, gender, and comorbidities, in this French study. Hip fracture patients had a 1.8% chance of dying before hospital discharge compared to 0.3% for THR…
Editor's Note Between 2000 and 2010, more than 5.2 million total knee replacements were performed in the US, and the rate at which adults had their knees replaced more than doubled (from 24 per 10,000 adults to 45 per 10,000), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National…
