Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has finalized the rule that will require hospitals in 67 geographic areas to participate in a test of bundled payments for hip and knee replacements, Modern Healthcare reports. Medicare's average bundled payment ranges from $16,500 to $33,000 for surgery, hospitalization,…

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Editor's Note Though recent studies using large databases have concluded that neuraxial compared with general anesthesia is associated with a decreased incidence of SSIs in total joint patients, this 11-year retrospective, controlled study found no difference. The use of peripheral nerve blocks also was not found to influence the incidence…

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Editor's Note Blacks are at a significantly higher risk of having total knee revision surgery within 5 years than whites, finds a study presented at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting in San Francisco. The risk of revision was 38% higher in blacks. When blacks undergo knee replacement they…

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Editor's Note Quality improvement initiatives combined with pulsed xenon ultraviolet room disinfection reduced total knee surgical site infections (SSIs) from four to zero and total hip SSIs from three to zero for a combined prevention of seven SSIs and a savings of $290,990 in 1 year at Trinity Medical Center,…

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Editor's Note Total knee replacement followed by nonsurgical treatment is more effective than nonsurgical treatment alone in providing pain relief and improving function and quality of life, this study finds. However, clinically relevant improvements were seen in both groups, and the surgical patients had a higher number of serious adverse…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in partnership with the National Library of Medicine on October 19 announced the launch of three new features on AccessGUDID, the public portal to data submitted to the FDA’s Global Unique Device Identification Database (GUDID). Two new APIs (application program interface) and…

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Editor's Note Researchers found significant differences in the odds of 30-day readmissions after total hip arthroplasties on the basis of race, socioeconomic status, and payer. African American and Hispanic patients had a higher risk of readmissions than white patients. Lower socioeconomic status was linked to higher odds of readmission. Medicare…

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Editor's Note Thomas King, MD, an orthopedic surgeon at the Knee, Hip & Shoulder Center, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has developed a process for total knee and hip replacements that allows many patients to leave the same day after surgery. He uses a combination of a minimally invasive technique, regional anesthesia,…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration on October 2 categorized the recall of PROFEMUR Neck Varus/Valgus CoCr 8 degree, Part number PHAC 1254, by MicroPort Orthopedics as Class I, the most serious. The company has received reports of unexpected fractures after surgery related to this modular neck. If the…

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Editor's Note Postoperative hip fracture patients are more likely to be successfully discharged home if they are rehabilitated in centers that care for at least 25 hip fracture patients per year, this study finds. Successful discharge was 43.7% for high-volume facilities (> 24 admissions/year) vs 18.8% for low-volume facilities (1-6…

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