Editor's Note An increased in adherence to Enhanced Recovery after Surgery (ERAS) protocols was associated with a decrease in postoperative complications in this study. Of 2,084 patients analyzed, 566 had moderate to severe postoperative complications. The number of patients with moderate to severe complications was lower in the ERAS group…

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Editor's Note In this multi-center study, longer durations of surgical prophylaxis did not result in further reductions in surgical site infections (SSIs) but were associated with increasing adverse events. Of 79,058 surgical patients in the VA healthcare system, SSI was not associated with duration of prophylaxis, but odds of acute…

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Editor's Note Implementation of AORN’s 2015 guidelines for OR attire, which also were adopted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has not decreased surgical site infections (SSIs) and has increased healthcare costs, this study finds. For the study, data were collected on general, cardiac, neuro-, orthopaedic, and gynecologic…

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Editor's Note After opioid prescribing recommendations were implemented for a single surgical procedure, laparoscopic gall bladder removal, opioid prescribing decreased for four other surgical procedures in this study. The analysis involved 1,158 patients, 558 who had surgery before the opioid recommendations were implemented and 600 after implementation. Opioid prescription size…

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Editor's Note The American College of Surgeons on May 23 announced that a partnership between the Military Health System and civilian trauma institutions is underway to create the first fully integrated military-civilian trauma system. The system will train military surgeons before deployment, help surgeons retain skills while deployed, and bring…

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Editor's Note Ambient intraoperative OR temperature had a negligible effect on core temperature when patients were warmed with forced air in this study. The effect was larger when patients were passively insulated, but the magnitude remained small. A total of 292 adult patients were randomized to ambient temperatures 19º, 21º,…

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Editor's Note The results of this study indicate that US nurses do not believe they are meeting evidence-based practice competencies. In this survey of 2,344 nurses from 19 hospitals or healthcare systems, the nurses overall reported they were not yet competent in meeting any of the 24 evidence-based practice competencies.…

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Editor's Note In this survey, most respondents chose surgical rather than nonsurgical treatment for acute appendicitis. Of 1,728 respondents, 85.8% chose laparoscopic appendectomy, 4.9% chose open appendectomy, and 9.4% chose antibiotics alone as treatments for themselves. For their child, 79.4% chose laparoscopic appendectomy, 6.1% chose open appendectomy, and 14.5% chose…

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Editor's Note In this study, a half-day faculty development course designed to equip surgical educators with frameworks shown to promote learning in the OR helped faculty members deliver improved instruction as perceived by surgical residents. A total of 19 faculty members completed the course. Associate professors demonstrated improved briefing, debriefing,…

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Editor's Note In this multicenter study, on-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) led to significantly higher rates of 5-year survival and event-free survival than off-pump CABG. From 2002 to 2007, a total of 2,203 patients at 18 medical centers were randomly assigned to undergo either on-pump (1,099 patients) or off-…

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