Editor's Note Efforts to reduce the risk of postoperative delirium in older patients should focus on preoperative evaluation, anesthesia choices, and medication management, according to the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA). Designed specifically for treating adults aged 65 and older undergoing inpatient surgery, these new, evidence-based recommendations are presented in…

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Editor's Note The American Medical Association (AMA) expressed “strong opposition” to a proposed regulation in Washington, DC, that would allow certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs) to use the title “nurse anesthesiologist.” As detailed in a December 2 announcement, a letter to the DC Department of Health from AMA CEO James…

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Editor's Note On October 14, Anesthesiology News published a monograph featuring clinical perspectives on how “those working in the trenches of postsurgical pain management” are preparing for the Non-Opioids Prevent Addiction in the Nation (NOPAIN) Act, which outlines new, separate Medicare reimbursement for certain non-opioid analgesics in outpatient and ambulatory…

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Editor's Note Researchers at MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have developed statistical models to improve how anesthesiologists manage unconscious pain, or nociception, during surgery, according to a September 23 report in News Medical. Derived from over 18,000 minutes of surgery data across 101 abdominal procedures, the models aim to…

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Editor's Note Patients with depressive symptoms are nearly twice as likely to experience delirium after major surgery, according to a meta-analysis published September 4 in the journal Anaesthesia. The evaluation of the link between preoperative depression and postoperative delirium included data from 42 studies involving more than 4.6 million patients.…

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Every year, OR Manager shines a light on staffing issues via the Salary/Career Survey. In this issue, two articles take a careful look at the career and profile of the perioperative leader in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Next month, two more articles will do the same with salary trends…

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Editor's Note Propofol research published in the journal Neuron has broader implications for enabling more precise, safer doses of anesthesia, according to an August 14 report in Anesthesiology News. According to the article, anesthesiologists tend to use higher doses of anesthetics because they rely on indirect measures, such as heart…

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Editor's Note The rising frequency of wildfires has anesthesiologists concerned about potential for adverse surgical outcomes to exposed patients, according to an article in the Online First edition of Anesthesiology,  the peer-reviewed journal of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA). As of an August 6 report from ASA, nearly 100…

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Editor's Note A CMS citation for immediate jeopardy this past June allegedly resulted in the cancellation of nearly 1,000 surgeries at Doctors Medical Center in Modesto, California, according to a July 30 article in Becker’s ASC Review. Citing a July 26 letter from California Assemblymen Heath Flora and Juan Alanis…

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Editor's Note New findings show that compared to standard anesthetic methods, a new high-flow oxygen technique is just as safe as during tubeless upper airway surgery in children.  Published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, the University of Queensland research-- the High-Flow Oxygen for Children's Airway Surgery (HAMSTER) trial—was the focus of…

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