Patient Safety & Outcomes

High amounts of perioperative inspiratory oxygen has been recommended to prevent postoperative wound infections, but a recent study shows it may have an impact on patient mortality, according to Anesthesia & Analgesia.

Deaths related to anesthesia have declined over the past 50 years in developed countries, but developing countries are lagging behind, according to News Medical.

A team of researchers analyzed 87 worldwide studies that showed post-anesthetic deaths have declined by as much as 90 percent since the 1970s.

The recently released Consumer Reports' Hospital Ratings suggests a need to reduce hospital-caused patient harm, as only 158 out of 1,000 hospitals scored above 60 percent for safety, according to Med City News.

The Physician-Patient Alliance for Health and Safety gave safety recommendations for patient-controlled analgesia pumps to manage pain, according to The Sacramento Bee.

The results of new study demonstrate the use of a split-dose preparation for colonoscopy improves both polyp detection rates and adenoma detection rates, according to a news release (pdf).

Researchers tested a more direct measure of anesthetic activity to increase accuracy of the model brain uptake, according to a study in the September issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia.

Emergency department-based observation of symptomatic young adults for acute coronary syndrome found very few patients with adverse cardiac events, bringing the value of the practice into question, according to a study in Journal of Emergency Medicine.

The Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority found variation in the implementation of best practices at nursing homes with high and low rates of infections.

Factors other than pain may increase the risk of long-term use of strong pain-relieving drugs after surgery, according to a study in the September issue of the International Anesthesia Research Society's Anesthesia & Analgesia.