American journal of obstetrics and gynecology
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More than half of patients hospitalized annually receive an opioid during their inpatient hospitalization, which may serve as a first opioid exposure. Although recent research addresses outpatient opioid prescribing following delivery, little is known regarding the extent to which opioids are used during the postpartum hospitalization following vaginal delivery. ⋯ In a large cohort, nearly one-quarter of women use opioid analgesia during the last 24 hours of inpatient hospitalization following vaginal delivery. Although patient factors account for some of the variation in inpatient opioid use, both use of acetaminophen and having had postpartum orders written by an advanced practitioner were independently associated with lower odds of inpatient opioid use.
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Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. · Dec 2018
Screening extremely obese pregnant women for obstructive sleep apnea.
Obesity is prevalent among pregnant women in the United States; obstructive sleep apnea is highly comorbid with obesity and is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. Screening for obstructive sleep apnea in pregnant women has remained a challenge because of a lack of validated screening tools. ⋯ We found that 24% of pregnant women with body mass index ≥40 kg/m2 between 24 and 35 weeks gestation have obstructive sleep apnea, defined as Apnea-Hypopnea Index ≥5 events per hour on an overnight type III home sleep apnea test. We found the Berlin Questionnaire, American Society of Anesthesiologists checklist, STOP-BANG, obstructive sleep apnea in pregnancy score by Facco et al, and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale were not useful screening tools for obstructive sleep apnea in a cohort of obese pregnant women. However, age, body mass index, neck circumference, frequently witnessed apneas, and likely to fall asleep while driving were associated with obstructive sleep apnea in this cohort. Further studies are needed to adjust the criteria and thresholds within the available screening tools to better predict obstructive sleep apnea in pregnant women with obesity.
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Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. · Dec 2018
Medicaid savings from the Contraceptive CHOICE Project: a cost-savings analysis.
Forty-five percent of births in the United States are unintended, and the costs of unintended pregnancy and birth are substantial. Clinical and policy interventions that increase access to the most effective reversible contraceptive methods (intrauterine devices and contraceptive implants) have potential to generate significant cost savings. Evidence of cost savings for these interventions is needed. ⋯ A program providing counseling and no-cost contraception yields substantial cost savings because of the increased uptake of highly effective contraception and consequent averted unintended pregnancy and birth.
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Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. · Dec 2018
Practice GuidelineGuidelines for intraoperative care in cesarean delivery: Enhanced Recovery After Surgery Society Recommendations (Part 2).
The Enhanced Recovery After Surgery Society guideline for intraoperative care in cesarean delivery will provide best practice, evidenced-based, recommendations for intraoperative care, with primarily a maternal focus. The "focused" pathway process for scheduled and unscheduled cesarean delivery for this Enhanced Recovery After Surgery cesarean delivery guideline will consider procedure from the decision to operate (starting with the 30-60 minutes before skin incision) through the surgery. The literature search (1966-2017) used Embase and PubMed to search medical subject headings including "cesarean section," "cesarean section," "cesarean section delivery," and all pre- and intraoperative Enhanced Recovery After Surgery items. ⋯ A number of specific elements of intraoperative care of women who undergo cesarean delivery are recommended based on the evidence. The Enhanced Recovery After Surgery Society guideline for intraoperative care in cesarean delivery will provide best practice, evidenced-based, recommendations for intraoperative care with primarily a maternal focus. When the cesarean delivery pathway (elements/processes) is studied, implemented, audited, evaluated, and optimized by maternity care teams, this will create an opportunity for the focused and optimized areas of care and recommendations to be further enhanced.
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Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. · Dec 2018
Preventing incremental drift away from professionalism in graduate medical education.
Professionalism is a core competency of graduate medical education programs, stipulated by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. We identify an underappreciated challenge to professionalism in residency training, the risk of incremental drift from professionalism, and a preventive ethics response, which can occur in residency programs in countries with oversight similar to that of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Two major, welcome changes in graduate medical education-required duty hours and increased attending supervision-create incentives for drift from professionalism. ⋯ This concept calls for physicians to make 3 commitments: to scientific and clinical competence; to the protection and promotion of the patient's health-related interests; and to keeping individual and group self-interest systematically secondary. Some responses of programs and residents to these incentives can undermine professionalism, creating a subtle and therefore hard-to-detect drift away from professionalism that in its worst form results in infantilization of residents. Program directors and educators should prevent this drift from professionalism by implementing practices that promote professionally responsible responses to the incentives created by required duty hours and increased attending supervision.