Editor's Note The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) has developed a pediatric surgical risk calculator based on 181,353 cases covering 382 CPT codes across all specialties. It was found to have excellent discrimination for mortality, morbidity, and seven additional complications. The calculator can be…

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Editor's Note Surgical ICU patients who were assigned to an early mobilization program were discharged sooner from the ICU and the hospital and needed less help after discharge, compared with those who had standard care, this study finds. The analysis included 104 patients assigned to early mobilization and 96 who…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration on October 3 announced the recall by Baxter International (Deerfield, Illinois) of its 50 mm 0.2 micron filters because of the potential for a missing filter support membrane and for potential presence of particulate matter. The filter is a bacteria and particulate filter…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on September 28 reported on an alert the National Alert Network (NAN) issued on medications leaking from Becton-Dickinson (BD) syringes (predominantly 10 mL). Leaks have extended past the first and second rib of the stopper, and appear to occur as medication is drawn into the…

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Editor's Note Suboptimal postoperative outcomes are the primary driver of high overall costs of care after bariatric surgical procedures, this study finds. The study included morbidly obese patients who underwent laparoscopic vertical sleeve gastrectomy (74 patients) or laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (270 patients) at a single institution from 2010 to…

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Editor's Note In this meta-analysis, propofol anesthesia was associated with reduced postoperative pain intensity at 30 minutes, 1 hour, and 12 hours as well as reduced morphine-equivalent consumption 0 to 24 hours postoperatively. Fewer patients required postoperative rescue analgesics during 0 to 24 hours after surgery under propofol, and patients…

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Editor's Note Surgeon buy-in and OR teamwork characterized by shared clinical leadership, open communication, active coordination, and mutual respect related positively to case-related conversation prompts, but not to completing procedural checks, this study finds. A total of 207 procedures in 10 South Carolina hospitals were included in the study. The…

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Editor's Note The Air Force Academy (Colorado Springs, Colorado) is notifying 267 patients from the school’s medical clinic and the Veterans Affairs Eastern Colorado Health Care System that they are at risk of infections from improperly processed gastrointestinal endoscopy equipment, according to the September 21 MilitaryTimes. Air Force officials say…

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Editor's Note Postoperative outcomes in the Veterans Affairs (VA) health system have consistently improved for the past 15 years, this study finds. In this analysis of nearly 705,000 patients undergoing noncardiac surgical procedures at 143 hospitals, absolute rates and likelihood of complications, mortality, and failure to rescue significantly decreased 40%…

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Editor's Note The ECRI Institute Patient Safety Organization on September 26 released its newest analysis of patient safety errors−a Deep Dive review of reported events involving patient identification. Researchers reviewed more than 7,600 wrong-patient events occurring over a 32-month period that were voluntarily submitted by 181 healthcare organizations. Approximately 9%…

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