Anesthesia
Failure to debrief after anesthesia critical events tied to communication breakdowns
Editor's Note Failure to debrief after critical events is common in anesthesia trainees and teams, and communication breakdowns are associated with the failure to debrief, this study finds. Over a 1-year period at a large academic medical center, anesthesiology residents and some attending anesthesiologists were audited and/or interviewed about the…
OSA screening boosts patient safety and bottom line
Editor's Note: For more recent data on obstructive sleep apnea care, risk factors, and resources, see the article, "Blast from the past: Revised data, evolving standards for OSA care in the perioperative setting," published in July 2025. An estimated 22 million people in the US have obstructive sleep apnea…
Less anesthesia during surgery doesn’t prevent postop delirium in older patients
Editor's Note Closely monitoring of brain activity with electroencephalography (EEG) and minimizing anesthesia in older patients during surgery had no significant effect on the occurrence of delirium after surgery, but it was linked to lower 30-day mortality, this study finds. In this analysis of 1,232 older surgical patients, researchers assigned…
Use of regional anesthesia in ambulatory arthroscopic knee surgery and ACL reconstruction
Editor's Note Adductor canal nerve block (ACB) provides modest analgesic benefits after ambulatory arthroscopic knee surgery, including improved relief for rest pain for 8 hours and reduced opioid consumption for 24 hours, this meta-analysis finds. However, ACB did not provide any analgesic benefits and did not improve any outcomes, compared…
Association of postop delirium with long-term cognitive function
Editor's Note In this study, postoperative delirium had a negative association with 30- and 90-day cognition in all participating patients. However, patients with preoperative cognitive impairment had an improvement in cognition at 30 and 90 days after surgery, but this increase was attenuated if the patient experienced postoperative delirium. This…
FDA: Sun Pharmaceutical recalls four lots of Vecuronium Bromide
Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on January 8 announced the recall by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Inc (Cranbury, New Jersey) of three lots of Vecuronium Bromide for Injection, 10 mg (lyophilized powder) (Lots: JKS0443A, JKS0444A, JKS0477A), and one lot of Vecuronium Bromide for Injection, 20 mg (lyophilized powder)…
ASA updates practice advisory on visual loss linked to spine surgery
Editor's Note The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) has published a new “Practice Advisory for Perioperative Visual Loss Associated with Spine Surgery 2019,” which updates the Practice Advisory published by the ASA in 2012. The purpose of the Advisory is to enhance awareness and reduce the frequency of perioperative visual…
How should you manage patients using marijuana?
What is the current state of marijuana research? Russell: Marijuana research is unlike any other drug research. Researchers have to jump through a lot of hoops with the federal government to study it. As a result, people are using marijuana before there is enough science to prove safety and efficacy.…
SHEA issues new guidance on infection control in anesthesiology
Editor's Note The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) on December 11 published a new expert guidance on “Infection prevention in the operating room anesthesia work area.” Key recommendations of the guidance to improve infection prevention include: Increased hand hygiene performed, at a minimum, before aseptic tasks, after removing…
Experts recommend new description for cognitive changes after anesthesia, surgery
Editor's Note A multidisciplinary panel of experts recommended changing the way clinicians and patients describe cognitive changes experienced after anesthesia and surgery, in this session presented October 16 at the Anesthesiology 2018 annual meeting in San Francisco. The experts recommended that a new umbrella term, “Perioperative Neurocognitive Disorder (PND),” be…
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