Obesity rates and, consequently, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) are on the rise in the US, and an increasing number of obese patients are undergoing surgical procedures at ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). Healthcare providers at such facilities are adding procedures and taking steps to ensure the safety of patients whose body…

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Editor's Note Reoperations after bariatric surgery occurred mainly within the first 10 years, and revisional surgeries (ie, conversions, corrections, and reversals) were more common after banding and vertical banded gastroplasty than gastric bypass, this Swedish study finds. In this analysis of 2,010 patients with 26 years of follow-up, first-time revisional…

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As hospital administrators face shrinking operating margins, OR leaders are being called upon to create innovative approaches for boosting revenue. Adding a new service line is one option, but it carries both risks and rewards. Only by careful analysis and follow-through can OR leaders hope to tip the balance to…

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Editor's Note During a 5-year quality improvement project, an academic medical center’s bariatric surgery program lowered its rates of postoperative complications and readmissions, surgical site infections (SSIs) and urinary tract infections (UTIs), and bleeding despite doubling its surgical volume, finds this study presented July 23 at the American College of…

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Editor's Note This retrospective study of patients undergoing bariatric surgery found that hospitals with the largest reductions in serious postoperative complications had the greatest decrease in Medicare payments. Researchers ranked 562 hospitals (37,329 patients) into quintiles. The top 20% of hospitals had a decrease in average serious complication rate of…

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Editor's Note One-year mortality after contemporary laparoscopic bariatric surgery is low at <0.25%, which is much lower than previously reported, this study finds. Of 158,606 bariatric procedures analyzed between 2008 and 2012, the 30-day and 1-year mortality rates, respectively were: 0.13% and 0.23% for laparoscopic Roux-en-Y bypass (LRYGB) 0.06% and…

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Editor's Note Changes in gene expression in intestinal tissue of patients after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery explain and predict blood glucose improvement and body weight loss, finds this study presented March 18 at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Chicago. The findings are based on the first 19 patients;…

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Editor's Note In this nationwide French study, bariatric surgery was associated with a significantly higher 6-year postoperative diabetes treatment discontinuation rate, compared with baseline and a control group who did not have bariatric surgery. Of more than 30,000 patients included in the study, the treatment discontinuation rate was 49.9% for…

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Editor's Note Patients who lose some weight before bariatric surgery achieve greater weight loss after surgery, and they have shorter procedures and hospital stays, this study finds. Those (224 patients) who lost 8% of their excess weight by following a 1,200 calorie diet for 4 weeks before their surgeries had…

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Editor's Note Hospitals with the largest reductions in serious complications after bariatric surgery had the greatest decrease in per-patient Medicare payments, this study finds. Analyzing 37,329 Medicare patients undergoing bariatric surgery from 2005 to 2006 and 2013 to 2014, researchers found a strong association between reductions in complications and decreased…

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