Tag: Preoperative assessment

Personalized perioperative pain management reduces opioid use

Editor's Note Helping patients taper opioids preoperatively before deploying multimodal care strategies can help prevent instances of patients already with prescriptions going home with even higher doses. That’s the main takeaway from an April 22 MedCentral interview with Marie N. Hanna, MD, division chief for regional anesthesia and acute pain…

Read More

By: Matt Danford
April 24, 2025
Share

Communications skills keep surgical patients engaged, informed

JAMA (healthcare publication) Network logo

Editor's Note An April 16 article in JAMA Network outlines a three-part communications framework for improving the quality and clarity of perioperative conversations with patients, particularly when time is limited and stakes are high. The article focuses particularly on three core communications skills: attending to emotion, managing uncertainty, and supporting…

Read More

By: Matt Danford
April 22, 2025
Share

Study: CT scan radiation could drive 5% of future cancer cases

Editor's Note Current US CT scan practices could lead to approximately 103,000 future cancers—nearly 5% of all new annual diagnoses—if utilization and radiation dosing patterns persist, according to a risk modeling study published April 14 in JAMA Internal Medicine. Authors emphasized that although CT is often lifesaving, its risks are…

Read More

By: Matt Danford
April 18, 2025
Share

Bye-bye, SSI: Nurse-led decolonization protocol pays off

Imagine completely eliminating surgical site infections (SSIs) without significantly disrupting perioperative workflows. At Magic Valley Regional Medical Center (MVMC), a mid-sized community hospital in Twin Falls, Idaho, a nurse-led pilot project accomplished just that for breast and colorectal surgeries. As for other procedures, overall infection rates are down by nearly…

Read More

By: Michelle Stierstorfer
April 16, 2025
Share

Study: GLP-1 drugs heighten risk of gastric residue but not perioperative pulmonary aspiration

Editor's Note Taking GLP-1 receptor agonists before anesthesia increases the risk of residual gastric contents, but evidence is lacking for a corresponding increase in perioperative pulmonary aspiration risk, according research published April 15 in the journal Anaesthesia. The systematic review and meta-analysis analyzed 28 observational studies involving over 466,000 patients…

Read More

By: Matt Danford
April 16, 2025
Share

Routine preop tests catch hidden risks in outpatient cosmetic surgery, Canadian study finds

Editor's Note As aesthetic procedures continue to migrate into freestanding ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), a new Canadian study argues that routine laboratory tests and electrocardiograms—often labeled “low‑value” in hospitals—remain a critical safety net when emergency back‑up is miles away. The manuscript was published by the Aesthetic Surgery Journal on April…

Read More

By: Tarsilla Moura
April 9, 2025
Share

Study: Cannabis use complicates sedation, cancer care

Editor's Note Cannabis users may require higher doses of anesthetics during sedation and experience worse physical and psychological symptoms during cancer treatment, according to an April 7 announcement from the University of Oklahoma (OU). Publishing in the journal Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, a multidisciplinary team of university researchers found that cannabis users…

Read More

By: Matt Danford
April 8, 2025
Share

Study: Preop mental health assessment improves postop outcomes for older patients

Editor's Note Preoperative mental health assessment significantly increases the odds of a postoperative “textbook outcome” for older patients, according to research published on March 15 in the journal Surgery. The median age for the patient population analyzed at the time of surgery was 74 years. Focusing on more than 32,500…

Read More

By: Tarsilla Moura
March 28, 2025
Share

Study: BMI, hidden tumors complicate intubation

Editor's Note Subtle risk factors—such as low BMI and hidden tumors—could lead to unexpected airway management difficulties, according to research published on March 17 in Nature: Scientific Reports. The case-control study analyzed 672 surgical patients who required endotracheal intubation between 2015 and 2020. Researchers compared 168 patients who experienced difficult…

Read More

By: Matt Danford
March 26, 2025
Share

New colonoscopy guidelines increase bowel prep quality expectations

Editor's Note New consensus recommendations from the US Multi-Society Task Force on Colorectal Cancer (MSTFCRC) set a 90% adequacy benchmark for bowel preparation in colonoscopy, reinforcing the role of preparation in ensuring accurate screenings and reducing the risk of missed lesions. As detailed in a March 4 joint press release…

Read More

By: Matt Danford
March 10, 2025
Share

Join our community

Learn More
Video Spotlight
Live chat by BoldChat