Editor's Note New clinical practice guidelines from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons recommend the use of arteries from the chest and forearm rather than using veins from the leg for coronary artery bypass grafting. The left internal thoracic artery is considered the gold standard conduit for coronary bypass and has…

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Editor's Note Boston Scientific Corporation is recalling RotaWire Elite core wires because they may crack and separate from the rest of the Rotablator Rotational Atherectomy System and cause serious injury such as tamponade, myocardial infarction, and migration of wire fragments, the Food and Drug Administration reported November 27. Boston Scientific…

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Editor's Note In this study, patients with psychiatric disorders (PsDs) requiring psychopharmacological treatments had an increase in postoperative morbidity after fast-track total hip and total knee arthroplasties, regardless of treatment type and preoperative comorbidities. Among PsD patients: Pain, postoperative anemia, and pulmonary complications were the most frequent causes of length…

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Editor's Note This study from Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore, found a significant relationship between OR door openings and room pressure. The OR door was opened, on average, once every 2.5 minutes of surgery. For 77 of 191 knee and hip arthroplasties, the doors were open long enough for…

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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 The Cleveland Clinic will perform uterus transplants in 10 women as part of a research study, the Washington Post reports. The candidates are women aged 21 to 39 who have uterine factor infertility. The procedure involves stimulation and freezing of multiple eggs, uterus donation from a deceased donor,…

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Editor's Note In patients requiring long coronary stents, the use of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS)-guided vs angiography-guided drug-eluting stent implantation resulted in a significantly lower rate (2.9% absolute reduction, 48% relative reduction) of major adverse cardiac events at 1 year, finds this study. These differences were mainly driven by the reduction…

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Editor's Note A condition known as “post hospital syndrome” (PHS) is a significant risk factor for readmissions in patients who undergo elective ambulatory surgery, this study finds. Post hospital syndrome (PHS) is defined as having been hospitalized within 90 days before surgery. During hospitalization, patients are often sleep deprived and…

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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 Since publication of the Appropriate Use Criteria for Coronary Revascularization in 2009, the number of nonacute percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs) has declined significantly (89,704 vs 59,375). The proportion of nonacute PCIs classified as inappropriate has also declined (26.2% vs 13.3%), although hospital-level variation persists. These findings indicate that…

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