Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on May 11, finalized its recommendations for assessing blood donor eligibility, which uses individual risk-based questions to reduce the risk of transmitting HIV. The questions will be the same for all donors, regardless of sexual orientation, sex, or gender. The new policy…

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Editor's Note This study from Spectrum Health, Michigan State University School of Medicine, Grand Rapids, measures the effect of different genres of music on surgical residents’ performance in laparoscopic surgery. Among the findings: 64% ranked pop music as their favorite 17% ranked classic rock as their favorite 11% ranked country…

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Editor's Note This study from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Baltimore, finds that COVID-19 is associated with decreased overall and complication-free survival, primarily in the early postoperative period. Of 153,741 surgical patients analyzed between March 2020 and 2021, 4,778 COVID-19-positive patients were matched…

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Editor's Note Poor personal financial health has been linked to well-being, including burnout, substance abuse, and worsening personal relationships. This secondary analysis of a survey led by the Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut examines the financial well-being of surgical residents in New England. A total of 250 surgical…

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Editor's Note The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) on May 9, issued a new draft recommendation on screening for breast cancer, recommending that all women get screened for breast cancer every other year starting at age 40. In a statement, the American College of Radiology (ACR) and Society of…

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Editor's Note Though the processes of care for emergency coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery were altered by the COVID-19 pandemic, patient mortality did not change for COVID-19-negative patients; however, COVID-19 positive patients did have significantly higher mortality as well as infectious complications, finds this study presented May 6 at…

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Editor's Note This update to the 2014 "Strategies to Prevent Surgical Site Infections in Acute Care Hospitals" recommends that antibiotics be discontinued after a patient’s incision has been closed in the OR, even if drains are present. The expert panel members writing the update add that continuing antibiotics after closure…

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Editor's Note The American Cancer Society, on May 2, announced new research that discovered both favorable and unfavorable changes in major cancer risk factors, preventive behaviors and services, and screenings during the COVID-19 pandemic. On the favorable side, smoking, physical inactivity, and heavy alcohol consumption declined, and human papillomavirus vaccination…

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Editor's Note The American College of Surgeons (ACS) announced May 1 that throughout the month of May it will promote STOP THE BLEED in collaboration with the Chicago Cubs, City of Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC), and programming to educate and empower the public to learn simple…

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Editor's Note This study, led by researchers at the University of California San Diego, La Jolla, finds that an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot assistant can provide responses to patient questions that are of comparable quality and empathy to those of physicians. A total of 195 randomly drawn patients’ medical questions…

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