Editor's Note Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) with surgical decision making could transform care by augmenting the decision to perform surgery, informed consent process, identification and mitigation of modifiable risk factors, decisions on postoperative management, and shared decision for resource use, this review finds. Surgical decision making involves hypothetical-deductive reasoning, individual…

Read More

Editor's Note The Center for Fluorescence-Guided Surgery at UC San Diego Health is the first in the country dedicated to delivering a new caliber of surgical accuracy that allows surgeons to identify cancerous or critical tissues with GPS-like precision by lighting them up, the December 5 UC San Diego Health…

Read More

Editor's Note Despite high rates of patients discharged with cardioprotective medications, the long-term burden of postoperative myocardial infarction (MI) after major vascular surgery is substantial, with a high mortality rate in the following year, this study finds. Of 26,231 vascular surgery patients analyzed, factors linked to an increased risk of postoperative…

Read More

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…

Read More

Editor's Note Though patient and personnel factors affect the order of case induction, induction time is most dependent on patient factors, this study finds. Of 15,823 cases analyzed, predictors of later patient induction included add-on case, ASA class 3 or more, neuraxial anesthesia, and CRNA staffing. In 11,093 (70.1%) cases,…

Read More

Editor's Note Duty hour reform had no significant effect on 30-day mortality achieved by new vs experienced surgeons, but there was an increase in resources needed for patient care after reform, this study finds. A total of 1,483,074 Medicare patients having general and orthopedic surgery were analyzed before and after…

Read More

Editor's Note Two artificial intelligence-based algorithms predicted the probability of a patient dying in the ICU within 30 days of traumatic brain injury with accuracies up to 81% and 84%, in this study from Finland. The first algorithm is based on objective monitor data, and the second one includes data…

Read More

Editor's Note In this study, the most important data-use practice associated with successful implementation of enhanced recovery pathways (ERPs) was data feedback to frontline providers of process and outcome measures. Of 140 hospitals analyzed, 52% reported previous ERP implementation, with wide variations in data-use practices. Feedback of process and outcome…

Read More

Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on November 25 approved a new system for the delivery of tympanostomy tubes into the eardrums of young children without using general anesthesia. The Tubes Under Local Anesthesia (Tula) System (Tusker Medical, Menlo Park, California) is the first ear tube delivery system…

Read More

Editor's Note In this study, a software app that tracks perioperative controlled substance use and is integrated into the electronic health and pharmacy records and database systems was associated with a decrease in management errors. This analysis includes data on missing controlled substance medications, controlled substance kits, and witness return…

Read More