Editor's Note Dedicated OR teams for a colorectal Enhanced Recovery after Surgery (ERAS) program at Johns Hopkins Hospital led to anesthesia providers becoming more central to the ERAS network, which increased process measure compliance and improved clinical outcomes in this study. Before the dedicated OR teams were instituted, surgeons were…

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Editor's Note Infection risk with peripheral and epidural catheter use in continuous regional anesthesia increases over time, especially after 4 days, this study finds. Of 44,555 continuous regional anesthesia patients analyzed in this German study, the probability of infection-free catheter use decreased each day of peripheral and epidural catheter use.…

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Concern about opioid abuse has reached epic proportions in recent months, and healthcare providers have come under increasing pressure to help mitigate the problem. Curbing the tendency to overprescribe pain medications is considered the first, most obvious step, but there are other actions that can also improve patient safety. Nurse…

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Editor's Note Complete handover of intraoperative anesthesia care was significantly linked to adverse postoperative outcomes in this Canadian study. In this analysis of 313,066 adult patients having major surgery, complete intraoperative handover of anesthesia care, compared with no handover, was significantly associated with a higher risk of a composite of…

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Editor's Note Children under age 5 having minor surgery with anesthesia have a small but statistically significant increased risk of a mental disorder, developmental delays, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), this study finds. A total of 38,493 children with a single exposure to anesthesia before age 5 and 192,465…

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Editor's Note A restrictive blood transfusion strategy (HGB <7.5 g/dL) was equivalent to a liberal strategy (HGB <9.5 g/dL in the OR or ICU and HGB<8.5 g/dL in the non-ICU ward) with regard to mortality and major disability in cardiac surgery patients who had a moderate-to-high risk of death, this…

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Editor's Note Electronic mandatory incident reporting system data entry and an initiative to understand and address reporting barriers and motivators were associated with sustained increases in adverse event reporting by pediatric anesthesiologists, in this study. Of 72,384 pediatric anesthetics analyzed, there were 2,689 adverse events. A subgroup of 54,469 cases…

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Editor's Note Poor preoperative cognition, as assessed by preoperative Mini-Cog screening, is prevalent among older total joint patients and predictive of adverse outcomes, including postoperative delirium, longer hospital stay, and greater likelihood of discharge to a place other than home, this study finds. Of 211 patients 65 years of age…

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Editor's Note Elderly hip fracture patients were less likely to die or return to the emergency department (ED) after discharge if they received care under the Perioperative Surgical Home (PSH) model of care, finds this study presented October 21 at the Anesthesiology 2017 annual meeting in Boston. PSH patients also…

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Editor's Note Opioid use in total hip and knee patients decreased by one-third between 2006 and 2014, which reflects success in the use of a multimodal approach (ie, opioids plus additional pain management methods, such as peripheral nerve blocks and acetaminophen) to pain management, finds this study presented October 21…

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