Editor's Note Working 46 hours per week or more increases the long-term risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), this study finds. Beginning at 46 hours, increasing work hours were progressively associated with increased risk of CVD (ie, angina, coronary disease, heart failure, heart attack, high blood pressure, or stroke). Compared to…
Editor's Note Hypothermia is associated with an increased risk for surgical site infections (SSIs) in patients having surgery to repair a hip fracture, finds this study presented March 2 at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. Of 1,525 patients analyzed: hypothermia occurred in 13.2% of cases…
Editor's Note Obtaining organs from deceased donors in a freestanding facility dedicated to organ recovery costs much less and leads to higher numbers of transplantable organs, this study finds. Researchers evaluated 6 years of data from the nation’s first freestanding organ recovery facility located in St Louis and owned and…
Editor's Note Readmissions after total hip and knee replacements are associated with nurse staffing levels and poor nurse work environments, finds this study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Philadelphia. The study analyzed data on more than 112,000 Medicare patients in nearly 500 hospitals. Adjusting for patient and…
Editor's Note Implementing bundled payments for Medicare patients having total joint replacements resulted in improved quality of care and outcomes and reduced costs, finds this study presented March 2 at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. As a pilot site for Medicare’s Bundled Payment for Care…
Editor's Note The risk of developing a surgical site infection (SSI) increased significantly in patients who had a total hip within 3 months of receiving a steroid injection in the hip joint, finds this study presented March 2 at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. Analyzing…
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration on February 29 announced a safety notice issued by Abbott (Abbott Park, Illinois) to reinforce the proper procedures used to operate and deploy its MitraClip Delivery System. The company has received nine reports of device malfunction where the user was unable to separate…
Editor's Note An old drug, tranexamic acid (TXA), which has been used in heart surgery, to treat hemophilia, and to stop excessive uterine bleeding is now being used to reduce the need for blood transfusions during total joint replacements. Researchers from the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City…
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on February 18 issued a final order to require the filing of a premarket approval (PMA) application for two types of metal-on-metal total hip replacement devices: hip joint metal/metal semi-constrained, with a cemented acetabular component hip joint metal/metal semi-constrained, with an uncemented…
Editor's Note A team of Cleveland Clinic surgeons on February 24 performed the nation’s first uterus transplant. The 9-hour procedure was performed on a 26-year old patient who had uterine factor infertility. The transplanted uterus came from a deceased organ donor. Further information will be released this week in a…