Bariatric Surgery Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on May 27 identified the recall of the ArjoHuntleigh Polska Sara Plus floor lift as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated because of the risk of smoke or fire if the lift is used when the battery is low.…
Editor's Note In a study published by JAMA Surgery in December 2021, the association between weight loss resulting from a metabolic surgical procedure performed pre-pandemic and less severe COVID-19 infection was analyzed in patients with obesity. Patients who underwent a procedure pre-pandemic, lost weight, and then contracted COVID-19 saw better…
Editor's Note US News & World Report on July 27 released its best hospital rankings for 2021-2022, with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, earning the top spot for the 6th year in a row. Rounding out the top five in the Honor Roll were: Cleveland Clinic UCLA Medical Center…
Editor's Note A RAND Corporation study published in the March Health Affairs finds that health insurers and patients can achieve significant savings when they participate in a bundled payment program that waives cost-sharing for patients. Researchers examined a bundled payment program developed by a private insurer that ran from 2016…
Editor's Note The safety of bariatric surgery has improved since 1993, and there has been a growth in the number of bariatric procedures performed, this study finds. However, utilization has only marginally increased. Of an estimated 1,903,273 patients who had bariatric surgery between 1993 and 2016, the mean age was…
Editor's Note Bariatric surgery provides more benefits for obese patients than weight loss; it also reverses subclinical heart dysfunction, finds this study presented December 5 at EuroEcho 2019, a scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology in Vienna, Austria. The study included 38 obese patients who had bariatric surgery…
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…
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…
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…
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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