Editor's Note: A recent study suggests artificial intelligence (AI) can be valuable for identifying patients who consumed risky amounts of of alcohol prior to surgery. Findings appeared in the journal Alcohol, Clinical and Experimental Research on January 8. For the study, researchers extracted 3 years of text-based clinical records from…

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Editor's Note The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in collaboration with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), announced a new initiative to ensure public access to emergency healthcare and assist hospitals in fulfilling obligations under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), a CMS January…

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Editor's Note: A point-of-care, antimicrobial coating for orthopedic implants could soon make implant-associated infections a problem of the past, UCLA Health reported on January 3. Developed by two UCLA surgeons, the coating is designed to kill or slow the spread of micro-organisms in order to prevent post-surgical infections. According to…

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Editor's Note: Equinoxe Shoulder System joint replacement devices manufactured by Exactech between 2004 and 2021 are at risk of premature wearing or failure due to defective packaging, according to a January 16 safety alert from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The bags used to package the devices were…

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In every OR, the complicated dance of surgical care coordination—the series of handoffs between stakeholders throughout the surgery lifecycle—is performed mainly in the background. Those stakeholders include physician offices, schedulers, preadmission testing, insurance verification, vendors, sterile processing, supply chain, anesthesia, and surgical staff. But what does it look like when…

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Editor's Note:  Surgeons successfully tested three fixes for a leaky heart valve on a biological pig heart fitted with a silicone robotic pump, HealthDay reported on January 11. According to the article, the biorobotic heart offers significant advantages over existing heart simulators. These include a longer shelf life, greater ability…

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Editor's Note: A recent study reveals individuals with obesity or metabolic disorder could have a higher risk of experiencing graft function deterioration (GFD), while individuals with metabolically healthy overweight or obesity (MHO) had an elevated risk. Results were published December 27 in JAMA Network Open. The cohort study examined 1260 adult…

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Editor's Note: Complex surgeries at high-volume (“hub”) hospitals are less likely to result in death or serious morbidity (DSM) than other hospitals within a system (“spokes”), the American Journal of Surgery reported December 25. However, patients undergoing common surgical care procedures at hubs are more likely to experience prolonged length…

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Editor's Note: An FDA-approved anti-inflammatory drug used to treat poisoning and liver damage could help reduce patient requests for opioids after surgery, according to findings published October 25 in the Future Medicine journal Pain Management. The study involved 50 patients who were given either a set dose of the anti-inflammatory…

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Editor's Note: Already shown to have a heightened risk of esophageal cancer, Asian Americans are also more likely to experience complications from esophagectomy, according to a study published January 4 in the American Journal of Surgery. The retrospective analysis, performed using ACS-NSQIP esophagectomy targeted database 2016–2021, compared 30-day postoperative outcomes…

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