Editor's Note In this case study, craniofacial surgeons from Brazil describe their experience with a 28-year-old COVID-19-positive man who developed orbital cellulitis, requiring surgical intervention. A few weeks before, the man had a mild illness with fatigue and loss of smell and taste. He didn’t seek medical care until he…

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Editor's Note This observational study by researchers at Saint Barnabas Medical Center, Livingston, New Jersey, and the Smith Center for Infectious Diseases & Urban Health, East Orange, New Jersey, finds that the use of weight-adjusted hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and azithromycin (AZM) improved the odds of survival of ventilated COVID-19 patients by…

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Editor's Note In this study, researchers from Henry Ford Health System in Michigan found that hydroxychloroquine alone decreased the mortality hazard ratio of COVID-19 by 66%, and hydroxychloroquine with azithromycin decreased the ratio by 71%, compared to neither treatment. The vast majority of the 2,541 COVID-19 patients included in the…

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Hospitals have long dominated the realms of infection control and antibiotic overuse. Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), which typically release patients the same day of a procedure, use antibiotics less frequently than other facilities, and most do not have an antimicrobial stewardship program. However, some ASC leaders and organizations are encouraging…

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Editor's Note More than 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections occur in the US each year, resulting in more than 35,000 deaths, according to a new “Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States 2019” report from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC). The CDC also notes that 223,900 cases of…

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Editor's Note Social risk factors were inconsistently associated with surgical site infection (SSI) rates after colectomy or abdominal hysterectomy in this study. In this analysis of 149,741 patients, Medicaid status (a marker for poverty) and living in a low-income zip code were linked to higher SSI rates after colectomy. For…

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Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS®) is a comprehensive, multifaceted, and multidisciplinary approach to the care of the surgical patient. ERAS bundles evidence-based elements to facilitate a faster recovery with fewer complications.1 Spanning the continuum of perioperative care, ERAS elements include: • patient engagement and education • preoperative optimization of nutrition…

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Editor's Note Because of the potential risk of selecting mutants carrying genes for cross-resistance to chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) and antibiotics, it is advisable to reserve the use of CHG for purposes other than hand hygiene, this study finds. A review of studies showed no significant difference in healthcare-associated infection rates…

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Editor's Note Hospitals that perform better on measures to prevent postoperative complications also have better performance on measures of profitability, this study finds. Improved patient safety performance was associated with higher net patient revenue for five of seven Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) measures, including starting and stopping preventive antibiotics…

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Editor's Note In this multi-center study, longer durations of surgical prophylaxis did not result in further reductions in surgical site infections (SSIs) but were associated with increasing adverse events. Of 79,058 surgical patients in the VA healthcare system, SSI was not associated with duration of prophylaxis, but odds of acute…

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