Editor's Note The Healthcare Quarterly report by Moody’s Investors Service shows the orthopedics and spine sectors increasingly performing robotic-assisted procedures, the January 18 Becker’s Spine Review reports. This is resulting in strong growth for device firms with major investments in these specialties, particularly Medtronic with its Mazor robotics platform for…

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Editor's Note In this study, postoperative delirium had a negative association with 30- and 90-day cognition in all participating patients. However, patients with preoperative cognitive impairment had an improvement in cognition at 30 and 90 days after surgery, but this increase was attenuated if the patient experienced postoperative delirium. This…

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Editor's Note ICU readmission risk for surgical patients can be predicted using a simple, clinical nomogram based on seven demographic and physiologic variables, this study finds. Of 3,109 patients admitted to the ICU by general surgery, transplant, trauma, and vascular surgery services, there were 141 (5%) unplanned readmissions within 72…

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Editor's Note Education of surgical interns on postoperative analgesia was effective in preparing them for judicious opioid prescribing, this study finds. An education session on postoperative analgesia prescribing was presented to 31 incoming surgical interns by surgical residents. Before the education session was started, few interns felt comfortable prescribing opioids…

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Editor's Note The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) has published a new “Practice Advisory for Perioperative Visual Loss Associated with Spine Surgery 2019,” which updates the Practice Advisory published by the ASA in 2012. The purpose of the Advisory is to enhance awareness and reduce the frequency of perioperative visual…

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Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on January 8 identified the recall of Medtronic’s Synergy Cranial Software and Stealth Station S7 Cranial Software as Class I, the most serious. The Software is used with the Stealth Station Surgical Navigation System to provide detailed 3D images of a patient’s…

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Editor's Note No significant difference was found between endoscopic and open vein–graft harvesting in the risk of major adverse cardiac events, in this study. This analysis of 1,150 patients in 16 Veterans Affairs cardiac surgery centers found that during a median follow-up of 2.78 years, the primary outcome of a…

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Editor's Note Implementation of AORN’s 2015 guidelines for OR attire, which also were adopted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has not decreased surgical site infections (SSIs) and has increased healthcare costs, this study finds. For the study, data were collected on general, cardiac, neuro-, orthopaedic, and gynecologic…

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Editor's Note To reduce contamination of the surgeon in the OR, the two-person gowning technique must be highly monitored, or the single-person gowning technique should be used, finds this study from the department of orthopedic surgery and rehabilitation at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City. For the…

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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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