Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration on March 26 said it will take steps to address potential medical product and device shortages because of the recent closure of a large contract sterilization facility, Sterigenics (Willowbrook, Illinois). Earlier this year, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency issued an order to stop…

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Editor's Note Minimally invasive embolization can be used to effectively treat uterine fibroids with fewer postoperative complications and a lower need for additional treatments than myomectomy, finds this study presented March 25 at the Society of Interventional Radiology’s 2019 Annual Scientific Meeting in Austin, Texas. Of 950 patients analyzed, half…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on March 19 released its current progress report on healthcare-associated infections, which includes state and national level statistics for 2017. Among the findings for acute care hospitals: Clostridium difficile infections declined by 13%. Central line-associated bloodstream infections fell by 9%. Methicillin-resistant…

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Editor's Note Educating anesthesia providers on the World Health Organization’s five indications for hand hygiene, increasing access to hand hygiene products in the OR, and monitoring  hand hygiene among anesthesia providers can improve hand hygiene compliance, this study finds. Hand hygiene was observed in three phases: Preimplementation, postimplementation, and 60…

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Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration on March 21 issued a Safety Communication on cybersecurity vulnerabilities identified in wireless telemetry technology used for communication between Medtronic’s implantable cardiac devices, clinic programmers, and home monitors. Medtronic (Dublin, Ireland) is working on updates to address the vulnerabilities and recommends that healthcare…

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Editor's Note Hospitals should consider adopting a care bundle approach to improve outcomes for emergency laparotomy patients, this study finds. In this analysis of 14,809 patients in 28 hospitals in the UK, reduction in unadjusted mortality (from 9.8% to 8.3%) and length of stay (from 20.1 days to 18.9 days)…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on March 20 announced that time is running out for organizations to submit applications for the 2019 Pioneers in Quality Proven Practices Collection. Applications must be submitted online by April 5. Among topics of interest: Demonstrating improvements in clinical performance or outcomes using electronic clinical…

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Editor's Note In this study, having elective coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery under inhaled (ie, desflurane, isoflurane, or sevoflurane) anesthesia did not result in significantly fewer deaths than total intravenous (IV) anesthesia, though inhaled agents have cardioprotective effects. A total of 5,400 patients at 36 centers in 13 countries…

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Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on March 19 issued warning letters to two breast implant manufacturers (Mentor Worldwide LLC of Irvine, California, and Sientra, Inc of Santa Barbara, California) for failing to comply with post-approval study requirements. All manufacturers of approved silicone gel-filled implants are required to…

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Editor's Note The US government claimed that digitization of healthcare records would improve the quality and value of healthcare; however, 10 years after legislation fast-tracked the move to electronic healthcare records (EHRs), even the architects of the effort agree that the $36 billion investment has not delivered as expected, the…

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