Editor's Note The FDA has announced a recall of the Atrium Express Dry Suction Dry Seal Chest Drain, a disposable device used to remove air and/or fluid from the chest cavity or mediastinum and to aid in lung expansion and breathing. The drain is being recalled by maker Maquet Cardiovascular,…
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…
Editor's Note: Adherence to routine disinfection procedures may not be enough to prevent potentially harmful bacterial contamination of high-touch hospital surfaces, according to findings published January 10 in the American Journal of Infection Control. Manikins, bed rails, and workstations-on-wheels were the most contaminated surfaces. The study involved sampling and culturing…
Editor's Note Healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs) have improved significantly after infection rates spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the nonprofit safety organization the Leapfrog Group, PRNewswire November 6 reports. According to the data, over 85% of hospitals improved performance on at least one of three dangerous infections: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA),…
Editor's Note An experimental vaccine designed by researchers at University of Southern California has been shown to prevent serious infections from drug-resistant pathogens, according to an October 2023 study published by Science Translational Medicine. In this study, titled "A protein-free vaccine stimulates innate immunity and protects against nosocomial pathogens," the…
Editor's Note An update of the 2014 “Strategies to Prevent Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections [CAUTIs] in Acute-Care Hospitals” was published August 25 by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA). The update, which is a collaborative effort led by SHEA, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Association for…
Editor's Note This study led by researchers at the Mayo Clinic Arizona finds that a healthcare associated infection (HAI) risk prediction artificial intelligence (AI) model can estimate individualized risk of infection by taking into account a patient’s clinical features and features of similar patients. The model was trained on 38,327…