Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on May 24, identified the recall by Draeger Medical of the Seattle PAP Plus as well as VentStar and other breathing circuit/anesthesia kits as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated after finding that glued connections may loosen before or…

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Editor's Note According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the percent of employment growth from 2021 and projected to 2031 for nursing and operating room-related occupations include: Nurse practitioners—45.7% Physician assistants—27.6% Nurse anesthetists—11.8% Nurse midwives—7.5% Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses—6.3% Registered nurses—6.2% Surgical technologists—5.9% Nursing assistants—4.7 Surgeons—3.4% Anesthesiologists—1.1%.

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Editor's Note Though the processes of care for emergency coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery were altered by the COVID-19 pandemic, patient mortality did not change for COVID-19-negative patients; however, COVID-19 positive patients did have significantly higher mortality as well as infectious complications, finds this study presented May 6 at…

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Editor's Note This update to the 2014 "Strategies to Prevent Surgical Site Infections in Acute Care Hospitals" recommends that antibiotics be discontinued after a patient’s incision has been closed in the OR, even if drains are present. The expert panel members writing the update add that continuing antibiotics after closure…

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Editor's Note This study, led by researchers at the University of California San Diego, La Jolla, finds that an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot assistant can provide responses to patient questions that are of comparable quality and empathy to those of physicians. A total of 195 randomly drawn patients’ medical questions…

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Editor's Note In response to questions, on April 21, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provided an update to its Safety Communication that enables the use of existing inventory of the O&M Halyard FLUIDSHIELD Surgical N95 Respirator Masks, Orange (Regular), Level 3, (Model 46727). The FDA recommends that, if necessary,…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on April 19, identified the recall by Fresenius Kabi USA of its Ivenix Infusion System as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated because of a leak in the system that allows fluid to enter the administration set loading area…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on April 13, updated prescribing information for all opioid pain medications, including requiring all packaging to have updated labeling and safety information. This includes stating that: for both immediate-release (IR) and extended release/long acting (ER/LA) opioid pain medications, the risk of overdose…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on April 12, issued a Safety Communication recommending that consumers, healthcare providers, and facilities not use certain surgical N95 respirators and to use caution with certain surgical masks and pediatric face masks, all manufactured by O&M Halyard. The FDA says it is…

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Editor's Note In this study, led by the University of Alabama at Birmingham, overlapping surgery was shown to reduce in-hospital mortality and to have similar patient safety indicators and readmission rates as nonoverlapping cases. Operative time was shown to increase with overlapping cases. A total of 87,426 cases were included…

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