Editor's Note Recalls of certain devices and instruction updates for others prompted the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue Class 1 recalls—the most severe category indicating risk of serious injury or death—for two groups of products: Medtronic’s McGrath MAC and MAC EMS Video Laryngoscopes and Breas Medical’s Vivo…

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Editor's Note A recent study conducted across 185 hospital wards in England highlights the significant impact of nurse staffing levels and staff composition on patient mortality. Published August 19 in JAMA, the study analyzed data from over 626,000 hospital admissions between 2015 and 2020. It found that low staffing levels…

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Editor's Note COVID-19 can be considered endemic worldwide, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on the heels of reporting a drop in overall US death rates from the disease. CDC’s classification of the disease as endemic “means, essentially, that COVID is here to stay in predictable ways,”…

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Symptomatic SARS-COV-2 patients undergoing surgical procedures experience significantly higher 30-day in-hospital mortality, ICU admission, longer ICU and hospital stay, and pulmonary complications, according to a study published August 1 in the Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing. Researchers analyzed a year’s worth of records of 102 infected surgical patients and those who…

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Editor's Note The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) designated recalls of Medtronic’s NIM Vital Nerve Monitoring System and Smith Medical’s CADD-Solis Ambulatory Infusion Pumps as Class 1, the most severe category indicating serious risk of injury or death. Reports of false negative responses prompted Medtronic to recall the nerve…

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Editor's Note Medical professionals have long accepted that bilateral mastectomy does not improve survival outcomes for breast cancer patients. However, a study published in JAMA Oncology reveals a puzzling finding: Those who develop a second cancer in the other breast have a higher risk of death. As detailed in a…

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Editor's Note Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery kept type 2 diabetes in remission for up to 15 years and maintained most of the weight loss for up to 20 years in a long-term study, according to a June 12 report in SciTech Daily. Presented the same day at The American Society…

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Editor's Note A study published May 7 in JAMA Open found no significant risk of periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) when colonoscopy is performed within one year of total joint arthroplasty (TJA), whether the colonoscopy was done before or after the surgery. However, certain comorbidities such as kidney and pulmonary disease,…

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Editor's Note Semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic diabetes treatment and Wegovy weight-loss treatment, outperformed a placebo and demonstrated capacity to reduce risk of death from kidney-related or cardiovascular causes in a recent study of patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease spearheaded by manufacturer Novo Nordisk. Published…

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Editor's Note Contrary to previous findings, less-invasive percutaneous intervention combining fractional flow reserve (FFR)-guided percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) could be a viable alternative to surgery for patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS) and concomitant obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). That’s according to the results…

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