Editor's Note Preoperative falls may be common and often injurious in surgical patients across all ages, and they are associated with preoperative functional dependence and quality of life, this study finds. The study included 15,060 adult patients undergoing elective surgery. In the 6 months before surgery, 26% fell at least…

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Editor's Note The overall risk for deep wound surgical site infections (SSIs) after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction is low, but it varies by graft type, this study finds. Of 1,452 patients included in the study, 55 had deep wound infections. Infection risk was highest for hamstring autograft (2.5%), compared…

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Editor's Note Surgical skill in laparoscopic gastric bypass does not predict outcomes for laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, this study finds. Surgeons with skill ratings in the top, middle, and bottom quartiles for laparoscopic gastric bypass had similar rates of complications after laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (top 5.7%, Middle 6.4%, bottom 5.5%). In…

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Editor's Note The American Society of Anesthesiologists announced June 22 that the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) is participating in the development of the Perioperative Surgical Home (PSH) model of care. The expected benefits include enhanced clinical quality, better patient experience, lower complication rates and readmissions, reduce length of…

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Editor's Note In this study, researchers from the University of California, Irvine, report on data for the second year of implementation of the total joint replacement Perioperative Surgical Home program. During the 2-year period there were 328 primary joint arthroplasty patients. Length of stay was significantly shorter in the second…

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Editor's Note A new model consisting of four risk factors can help surgeons predict the risk of complications after surgery for cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM), this multi-center study finds. Surgical CSM patients have a higher risk of perioperative complications if they have a greater number of comorbidities, coexisting diabetes mellitus,…

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Editor's Note Significant variation exists in mortality across hospitals for colon cancer surgery, this study finds. The analysis included 3,025 patients who had colon surgery at 19 low-mortality (1,006) and 30 high-mortality (2,019) hospitals. Researchers found a wide difference in mortality between high-mortality and low-mortality hospitals (9.3% vs 2.4%). Compared with…

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Editor's Note In this modeling study of previously unscreened 40-years olds undergoing colorectal cancer screening, the following screening strategies from ages 50 to 75 years were estimated to provide similar life years gained and a comparable balance of benefit and screening burden: colonoscopy every 10 years annual fecal immunochemical testing…

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Orthopedic services are evolving. Total joint patients are younger and healthier, the technology has improved, and procedures are moving to the ambulatory setting. The desire for same-day discharge has raised the bar for provider performance and increased competition among facilities that are adding total joints to their service lines. Younger…

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Some healthcare facility leaders have managed to reduce or even eliminate the incidence of retained surgical items (RSIs), but vulnerability remains despite increased focus on this problem. A 2015 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association cited a median estimate for RSIs: one event per 10,000 procedures, with…

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