Editor's Note A program at the Hospital for Special Surgery, New York City, to improve orthopedic surgery residents’ communication skills with older adults is paying off, according to a new study presented at the Council of Orthopaedic Residency Directors meeting on June 24 in Seattle. A total of 64 residents…

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Editor's Note Rebuilding America’s Warriors (RAW) will provide free surgery to survivors of the Orlando nightclub shootings, WFTV9 Eyewitness News reports. The RAW group comprises more than 350 surgeons in more than 40 states who perform reconstructive surgery for war veterans for free. In addition to the surgeons covering the…

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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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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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Editor's Note Orlando Regional Medical Center treated 44 of the Pulse nightclub shooting victims; nine died, the June 14 Modern Healthcare reports. A total of 26 surgical procedures were performed early Sunday morning, June 12, six more were performed on Monday, and eight were performed on Tuesday, June 14, with…

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Editor's Note A 16-hour delay from emergency department (ED) admission or a 12-hour delay from hospital admission to performance of an appendectomy was not associated with an increased risk of surgical site infections (SSIs), in this study. Of 1,338 patients included in the study, 70% had a diagnosis of simple…

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Editor's Note Healthcare disparities are widely established and include differential access, care, and outcomes stemming from factors such as minority group and socioeconomic status, finds this meta-analysis. In this examination of 328 studies of healthcare disparities, researchers identified five major themes for causes of surgical disparities: patient factors−demographic, physiologic, and…

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Editor's Note This study found that implementation of a clinical practice guideline for management of pediatric complicated appendicitis standardized practice patterns among surgeons and was associated with reduced resource use and improved patient outcomes. Compared with the pre-guideline group, patients in the post-guideline group were less likely to: receive a…

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Editor's Note In this study, patient factors, hospital case volume, and practice patterns were found to be associated with in-hospital mortality after elective abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair. Of 166, 443 AAA repairs performed at 1,207 hospitals, in-hospital mortality was 0.7% for endovascular AAA repair and 3.8% for open AAA…

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