Editor's Note The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) has published a new “Practice Advisory for Perioperative Visual Loss Associated with Spine Surgery 2019,” which updates the Practice Advisory published by the ASA in 2012. The purpose of the Advisory is to enhance awareness and reduce the frequency of perioperative visual…

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What is the current state of marijuana research? Russell: Marijuana research is unlike any other drug research. Researchers have to jump through a lot of hoops with the federal government to study it. As a result, people are using marijuana before there is enough science to prove safety and efficacy.…

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Editor's Note The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) on December 11 published a new expert guidance on “Infection prevention in the operating room anesthesia work area.” Key recommendations of the guidance to improve infection prevention include: Increased hand hygiene performed, at a minimum, before aseptic tasks, after removing…

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Editor's Note A multidisciplinary panel of experts recommended changing the way clinicians and patients describe cognitive changes experienced after anesthesia and surgery, in this session presented October 16 at the Anesthesiology 2018 annual meeting in San Francisco. The experts recommended that a new umbrella term, “Perioperative Neurocognitive Disorder (PND),” be…

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Editor's Note The Perioperative Surgical Home (PSH) model of care was successful in improving quality of care and outcomes in elderly hip fracture patients and children having cardiac surgery in two studies presented October 14 at the Anesthesiology 2018 annual meeting in San Francisco. One study compared 308 hip fracture…

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Editor's Note In this study, the composition of the anesthesia care team (anesthesiologist plus nurse anesthetist or anesthesiologist assistant) was not associated with any significant differences in mortality, length of stay, or inpatient spending. Of 443,098 Medicare beneficiaries who had inpatient surgery between 2004 and 2011, the adjusted mortality for…

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Editor's Note The Society of Anesthesia and Sleep Medicine (SASM) has issued a new guideline on Intraoperative Management of Adult Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). Specific aims of the guideline are to: evaluate considerations of difficult airway management in patients with OSA assess the impact of anesthesia-related drugs and…

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Editor's Note In patients with American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status I and II, the risk of 30-day morbidity and mortality was similar for those who had blood testing shortly before surgery and those whose testing was done up to 2 months before surgery, this study finds. Of 235,010 patients…

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Editor's Note In cardiac surgery patients at moderate-to-high risk for death, a restrictive strategy for red blood cell (RBC) transfusion was equivalent to a liberal strategy, with respect to death from any cause, myocardial infarction, stroke, or renal failure, at 6-months follow-up, this study finds. There also were no significant…

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Editor's Note In this study, no benefit of hypnosis before general anesthesia was found on postoperative pain, but it had other benefits, such as less fatigue and anxiety (especially in patients who thought they received hypnosis, but did not) and higher patient satisfaction scores. A total of 150 women having…

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