Editor's Note This Canadian study finds a 1.5-fold increase in costs in the year after major, elective noncardiac surgery for patients with preoperative frailty. A total of 171,576 patients (23,219 with preoperative frailty) were included in the analysis. Unadjusted costs were higher for frail patients. After adjusting for confounders, an…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on July 28, identified the recall by GE HealthCare of its TruSignal SpO2 [arterial oxygen saturation] sensors as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated because of issues that may reduce the amount of energy sent to the heart during…

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Editor's Note This French study examines the rate of medical confidentiality breaches in tweets by anesthesiology and intensive care healthcare workers (HCWs). Data from 431 tweets with photographs and 9,000 text-only tweets from 1,831 accounts were included in the analysis. Among the findings: There were 44 (10.2%) breaches of medical…

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Editor's Note On July 14 and 15, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) hosted a virtual event, the Anesthesia Quality and Patient Safety Meeting, which brought to light new research on when to administer epidural anesthesia in the OR, an anesthesiologist-led infection prevention program reducing rates of surgical site infections…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on July 19, announced that it has revised its Medication Compounding (MC) chapter for home care organizations and the Medication Compounding Certification (MDC) program, which is available to accredited hospitals, critical access hospitals, and home care pharmacy organizations. Among the revisions: Revising the requirements to…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on July 13, identified the recall by Draeger Medical of its Oxylog 3000 Plus Emergency and Transport Ventilators as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated because of reports that the ventilator may not automatically switch back to using AC…

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Editor's Note In this study, researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of USC Los Angeles, find that patients having simultaneous bilateral total knee arthroplasties (TKAs) are at increased risk of several types of complications, compared with patients having unilateral TKAs. A total of 21,044 patients having simultaneous bilateral TKAs…

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Editor's Note A recent study led by researchers at the McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston finds patients with cannabis use disorder are at a modestly increased risk of perioperative morbidity and mortality after major elective, inpatient, noncardiac surgery. Recently in the United…

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Editor's Note The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) announced on June 29 that patients taking any of the currently popular medications for weight loss or for the treatment of type 2 diabetes should withhold the medication prior to elective surgery to "reduce the risk of complications associated with anesthesia in…

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Editor's Note This multi-center study led by Humana Inc, Louisville, Kentucky, finds that a bundled payment program offered by a Medicare Advantage insurer for lower extremity joint replacements was associated with reduced spending without changes in quality. A total of 23,034 lower extremity joint replacement surgical episodes (6,355 bundled, 16,679…

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