Editor's Note In this study, a preoperative, patient-centered wellness program significantly reduced hospital acquired infections in surgical patients at an academic medical center. A total of 12,396 surgical patients were given a wellness bundle in a roller bag during preoperative screening. The bundle included chlorhexidine bath solution, immuno-nutrition supplements, an…

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Editor's Note In this study, the composition of the anesthesia care team (anesthesiologist plus nurse anesthetist or anesthesiologist assistant) was not associated with any significant differences in mortality, length of stay, or inpatient spending. Of 443,098 Medicare beneficiaries who had inpatient surgery between 2004 and 2011, the adjusted mortality for…

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Editor's Note The Society of Anesthesia and Sleep Medicine (SASM) has issued a new guideline on Intraoperative Management of Adult Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). Specific aims of the guideline are to: evaluate considerations of difficult airway management in patients with OSA assess the impact of anesthesia-related drugs and…

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Editor's Note In patients with American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status I and II, the risk of 30-day morbidity and mortality was similar for those who had blood testing shortly before surgery and those whose testing was done up to 2 months before surgery, this study finds. Of 235,010 patients…

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In this study, researchers project that the burden of complex surgical site infections (SSIs) after primary and revision total hips and knees will increase 14% from 2020 through 2030 because of an aging population. Editor's Note In this study, researchers project that the burden of complex surgical site infections (SSIs)…

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Editor's Note In this multicenter, randomized controlled trial from the Netherlands, physical therapy was noninferior to early arthroscopic partial menisectomy for improving knee function in patients with nonobstructive meniscal tears. In this analysis of 321 (159 surgery, 162 physical therapy) patients, knee function improved by 20.4 points in the physical…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare is collaborating with the Johns Hopkins, Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento, and Memorial Hermann Southeast Hospitals to identify root causes of and solutions for reducing rates of hospital-acquired pressure ulcers and injuries. Following completion of the “Reducing hospital-acquired pressure injuries” project in…

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Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration on September 28 announced the recall by Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc of two lots of Robaxin 750 mg tablets because of incorrect dosing information on the label. Robaxin contains methocarbamol, which is used as a muscle relaxant. Patients who follow the incorrect dosing information…

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Editor's Note Despite ethical and legal obligations to protect patient privacy and efforts to establish best practices for healthcare information security, breach rates have increased since 2010, this study finds. Of 2,149 breaches that involved 176.4 million records, the most common entities breached were healthcare providers, with 1,503 breaches that…

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Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on October 1 released a “Playbook,” developed by the Medical Device Cybersecurity Regional Incident Preparedness and Response (MITRE) Corp, to assist hospitals and other healthcare providers respond to cybersecurity incidents involving medical devices, the American Hospital Association reports.  The MITRE Playbook outlines…

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