Editor's Note The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) on August 31 issued 10 penalties to 10 California hospitals along with fines totaling $618,002. Of these, three applied to the OR: Loma Linda University Medical Center, Murrieta−a patient sustained a full thickness thermal burn injury to the left calf from…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on September 20 posted sentinel event statistics from its database through June 30, 2017. Of the top 10 most frequently reported sentinel events during this time period: Falls topped the list with 49 events. Unintended retention of a foreign object was 3rd with 41 events.…

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Editor's Note In this large multi-site study, bariatric surgery was associated with a lower risk of cancer, particularly obesity-associated cancers, such as postmenopausal breast cancer, endometrial cancer, and colon cancer. The study included five study sites with 22,198 patients who had bariatric surgery and 66,427 nonsurgical matched subjects. At a…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on September 25 categorized the recall by Spectranetics (Colorado Springs, Colorado) of its Bridge Occlusion Balloon Catheter (model 590-001) as Class I, the most serious. The Bridge Occlusion Balloon Catheter is used to temporarily block the superior vena cava when emergency control…

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Editor's Note Private vehicle transport was associated with a significantly lower likelihood of death compared with ground emergency medical services (EMS) transport for patients with gunshot and stab wounds in this study. In this analysis of 103,029 patients in the National Trauma Data Bank, 87.6% were male, 47.9% were black,…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on September 20 announced the top five most challenging requirements for the first half of 2017. The top five requirements identified most frequently as “not compliant” during surveys and reviews for hospital accreditation were: 86%--LS.02.01.35: The hospital provides and maintains systems for extinguishing fires. 74%--LS.02.01.30:…

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Editor's Note This 12-year study showed long-term durability of weight loss and effective remission and prevention of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery. For the study, 1,156 severely obese patients were divided into three groups: 418 who sought and had Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (surgery group),…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on September 20 cleared the first duodenoscope with a disposable end cap, which will improve access for cleaning and reprocessing. The new features of the Pentax ED34-i10T duodenoscope include a single-use detachable and disposable distal cap, simpler user interface, improved ergonomics, improved…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on September 19 updated its Safety Alert for urogynecologic surgical mesh manufactured by Boston Scientific. After an extensive review of data and testing, the FDA has determined that the change in supplier of the polypropylene used to manufacture the mesh currently on…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on September 13 announced the recall by OriGen Biomedical (Austin, Texas) of two lots of its VV28F Reinforced Dual Lumen ECMO [extracorporeal membrane oxygenation] Catheters (Catalog number VV28F, Lots N18487 and V18487-1). The recall was initiated because the catheters have the potential…

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