Editor's Note Health complications and hospital readmissions are more likely for Medicare patients living in areas with primary care shortages. The findings, from a cross-sectional retrospective cohort study of data from 2015 to 2019, were published March 4 in Health Affairs. Specifically, the study showed that patients in areas with…

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Editor's Note A medical device developed by researchers at Northwestern University and Washington University School of Medicine could enable clinicians to monitor the health of a patient’s organs following surgery. The findings appeared in the journal Science on March 7.  Patients who undergo gastrointestinal surgeries—including pancreatic surgery—can develop anastomotic leaks…

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Editor's Note Patient engagement technologies (PETs) reduced length of stay (LOS), complication rates, and readmission rates among patients in a study published February 16 in the American Journal of Surgery. The retrospective cohort study consisted of more than 400 patients undergoing elective colorectal surgery from 2018 to 2022. Approximately 9…

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Editor's Note Compared with standard wound dressings, single-use negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) devices can reduce the incidence of surgical site infection (SSI) in at-risk patients with closed surgical incisions across a range of surgical specialties, according to a data review highlighted in the February issue of the American Journal…

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Editor's Note Evidence-informed and specialty-specific models of nursing assessment and ward redesign can benefit hospital safety, according to a study published January 27 in the International Journal of Nursing Studies. Called the ENCORE (evidence-based nursing core assessment) trial, the large-scale study led by Queensland University of Technology included 29,385 patient…

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Editor's Note Following up with a nursing guide in addition to the the modified early warning score (MEWS) helps reduce early postoperative complications, according to the results of a recent clinical trial. Nursing guide application in patients followed up according to MEWS also decreased ISCU admission, decreased MEWS and increased…

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Editor's Note Bariatric surgery is more effective than lifestyle and medical interventions in glycemic control for Type 2 diabetes patients, according to findings published February 27 in JAMA. The clinical trial involved four health systems and 262 participants, 96 of whom received medical- and lifestyle-focused treatment and 166 of whom…

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Editor's Note In a recent study, black children undergoing emergency appendectomy had a four times greater risk of postoperative complications than white children, independent of socioeconomic status or type of appendicitis. Anaesthesia, the journal of the Association of Anaesthetists, published the findings February 22. Researchers note that this is the…

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Editor's Note Using intravascular imaging to guide stent implantation during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) provides significantly better outcomes than angiography, according to findings published February 21 in The Lancet. In a study of 15,964 patients undergoing PCI from 22 trials in hundreds of centers from March 2010 to August 2023,…

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Editor's Note The impact of body mass index (BMI) on hernia recurrence is likely overstated, and symptomatic patients should not be denied abdominal wall reconstruction procedures due to an arbitrary BMI cutoff of 35 kg/m2. This is the conclusion of a study published February 1 in the journal Surgery by…

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