Editor's Note This study found that surgical site infections (SSIs) occurred most commonly after total joint replacement revision procedures and were related to many patient comorbidities, which were significantly associated with a higher risk of SSIs. In this analysis of 335,134 total knee replacements (TKRs) and 163,547 total hip replacements…

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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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Providing sterile instrumentation for patient care is a basic fundamental of surgery, and ensuring sterility means that instrumentation must first be thoroughly cleaned, step by step. Point-of-use treatment, an important part of this process, is gaining the attention of accrediting agencies such as the Joint Commission, and it is included…

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Editor's Note Though recent guidelines mandating additional barrier attire for all scrubbed and unscrubbed OR personnel from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and Joint Commission, which include bouffant caps covering all hair and long-sleeved surgical attire covering all exposed skin, this study finds that this mandate does…

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Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) announced September 4 that it will hold a Medical Devices Advisory Committee Meeting in November to discuss ethylene oxide (EO) sterilization of medical devices, including methods to reduce EO emissions. The committee also will provide recommendations on reducing infection risks from reprocessed…

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Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on August 29 issued a News Release recommending that healthcare facilities and manufacturers begin transitioning to duodenoscopes with disposable components to reduce the risk of patient infection. The FDA also announced additional actions they have taken to help ensure the safety of…

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Editor's Note The debate over surgical cap attire has grown from a patient-safety issue to a platform for emotionally driven arguments, unflattering logic, and failed leadership by all parties involved, according to this Viewpoint article in JAMA Surgery. The 2014 guidelines from AORN never explicitly endorsed the bouffant hair cover,…

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Editor's Note Sentara Healthcare (Norfolk, Virginia) is using a sepsis prediction tool to help alert physicians and nurses when a patient is at risk of developing the infection, the August 26 Reading Eagle reports. The tool uses artificial intelligence (AI) to run some 4,500 pieces of patient data through an…

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Extensive research by Cori L. Ofstead, MSPH, and her colleagues at Ofstead & Associates (St Paul, Minnesota) has raised concerns about insufficient reprocessing of gastrointestinal endoscopes and ureteroscopes—even when recommended practices are followed—and their new study makes a compelling case for more stringent reprocessing of bronchoscopes as well. In their…

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Healthcare workers are at risk for bloodborne pathogen exposures in areas ranging from the clinic to the OR—both inpatient and outpatient settings. Such exposures not only cause anxiety, they cost an estimated $3,000 to $5,000 per exposure for things such as baseline and follow-up laboratory testing, treatment of exposed personnel,…

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