Editor's Note Higher doses of anesthesia did not affect risk of postoperative delirium in a study of more than 1,000 heart surgery patients, according to a June 10 United Press International (UPI) article on study findings published in JAMA. The research included 1,140 heart surgery patients, half of whom had…

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Editor's Note In a first for Northwestern Medicine, surgeons performed a kidney transplant on an awake patient, CBS News reported June 24. John Nicholas, 28, of Chicago, experienced no pain during the May 24 procedure, in which he received an organ from a childhood friend. He was discharged the next…

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Gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy is one of the most common procedures in the US. Performed more than 17.1 million times per year in inpatient and outpatient hospital settings as well as ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), GI procedures account for 68% of all endoscopies, according to a May 2022 article in Digestive…

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Complex problems do not always require complex solutions. Consider the surgical safety checklist. In 2020, more than a decade after the World Health Organization (WHO) started advocating that every hospital use the checklist, research from PSNET found that more than 90% of ORs in countries with a high human development…

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Editor's Note The advance of ketamine and other anesthetics as depression treatments is spurring collaboration among anesthesiologists and psychiatrists for further advances in mental health treatment, according to an article in the June issue of Anesthesiology, the peer-reviewed journal of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. As the established experts in…

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Editor's Note Preoperative use of GLP-1 receptor agonists (RA) medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy is safe, according to a study published in the June issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology. Controversy has swirled around these drugs due to the risk of slowed stomach emptying increasing a patient’s odds…

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Editor's Note Citing environmental concerns, multiple health systems have stopped using desflurane anesthesia gas, Becker’s Hospital Review reported on May 7. Citing the Philadelphia Inquirer, the outlet notes that Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Marlton, N.J.-based Virtua Health are among those that have eliminated the gas so far, with the…

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Editor's Note The more diverse the surgical team, the better the outcomes for patients and the lower the cost of care, according to a study of more than 700,000 operations at 88 hospitals in Ontario, Canada. Published May 15 in the British Journal of Surgery, findings show that surgeon-anesthetist teams…

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Editor's Note Recent research suggests that minimizing the risk of perioperative pulmonary aspiration in diabetic patients does not require different fasting instructions. However, at least one expert has questioned the results, and widespread glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists for the treatment of both type 2 diabetes and weight loss can…

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Editor's Note The term "perioperative neurocognitive disorder" has been adopted to describe cognitive impairments identified during the perioperative period, the American College of Surgeons (ACS) May 8 reports. Postoperative delirium, in particular, is an acute complication manifesting as confusion and fluctuating levels of consciousness and attention. The incidence of this…

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