Editor's Note The Mayo Clinic in Florida announced March 26 that it is the first center in the state to perform endoscopic lung volume reduction with endobronchial valves. The procedure, which was recently approved by the Food & Drug Administration, is used to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases such as…

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Editor's Note Minimally invasive embolization can be used to effectively treat uterine fibroids with fewer postoperative complications and a lower need for additional treatments than myomectomy, finds this study presented March 25 at the Society of Interventional Radiology’s 2019 Annual Scientific Meeting in Austin, Texas. Of 950 patients analyzed, half…

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Editor's Note Educating anesthesia providers on the World Health Organization’s five indications for hand hygiene, increasing access to hand hygiene products in the OR, and monitoring  hand hygiene among anesthesia providers can improve hand hygiene compliance, this study finds. Hand hygiene was observed in three phases: Preimplementation, postimplementation, and 60…

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Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration on March 21 issued a Safety Communication on cybersecurity vulnerabilities identified in wireless telemetry technology used for communication between Medtronic’s implantable cardiac devices, clinic programmers, and home monitors. Medtronic (Dublin, Ireland) is working on updates to address the vulnerabilities and recommends that healthcare…

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Editor's Note Hospitals should consider adopting a care bundle approach to improve outcomes for emergency laparotomy patients, this study finds. In this analysis of 14,809 patients in 28 hospitals in the UK, reduction in unadjusted mortality (from 9.8% to 8.3%) and length of stay (from 20.1 days to 18.9 days)…

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Editor's Note In this study, having elective coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery under inhaled (ie, desflurane, isoflurane, or sevoflurane) anesthesia did not result in significantly fewer deaths than total intravenous (IV) anesthesia, though inhaled agents have cardioprotective effects. A total of 5,400 patients at 36 centers in 13 countries…

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Editor's Note The US government claimed that digitization of healthcare records would improve the quality and value of healthcare; however, 10 years after legislation fast-tracked the move to electronic healthcare records (EHRs), even the architects of the effort agree that the $36 billion investment has not delivered as expected, the…

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Editor's Note This study comparing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) with standard open-heart surgery found no difference in stroke or death from any cause at 2 years follow-up. The findings were presented March 17 at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session in New Orleans. A total of 1,468…

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Editor's Note After a hospital-wide intervention and state-wide legislation, this community hospital in Michigan achieved a 60%-70% decrease in postoperative opioid prescriptions and less variation in opioid prescription practices. This retrospective study of opioid naïve adult patients who had one of five general surgical procedures between 2015 and 2017 found…

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Editor's Note There were no increased risks of complications or readmissions after total hip replacements (THRs) and total knee replacements (TKRs) performed in a community-based ambulatory surgery center (ASC), finds this study reported in a Poster Session March 14 at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in Las Vegas. A…

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