The American journal of orthopedics
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In the current health care environment, it is more important than ever for orthopedic surgeons to strive for optimal efficiency and effectiveness. For maximum efficiency, patients can be preselected to limit patient types that commonly require a greater investment of the practice's time and resources. Structuring surgical practices for efficiency may involve rethinking the staffing model, anticipating problems that may occur with individual patients, and enhancing internal and external communications. ⋯ Among such advances are tranexamic acid, intravenous acetaminophen, and bupivacaine liposome injectable suspension (EXPAREL®, Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Inc). Intravenous acetaminophen and liposomal bupivacaine, in particular, can significantly improve efficiency by reducing the administration of opioid medication during the postoperative period, and thereby reducing opioid-related side effects. Liposomal bupivacaine has also been shown to shorten the hospital length of stay and, in many cases, eliminate the need for costly and inefficient nerve blocks.
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Despite advances in the understanding of postoperative pain, approximately 80% of surgical patients still experience a meaningful level of pain, which can result in unnecessary stress and suffering; compromise the patient's progress, recovery, and outcome; and lead to poor function and the development of chronic pain. In arthroplasty patients, the goals of pain management include improving comfort and satisfaction, enabling patients to ambulate and move their joints soon after surgery, and, where appropriate, reducing the hospital length of stay. ⋯ Furthermore, as-needed administration of opioids allows for the repeated return of pain after the operation as each dose wears off. A balanced multimodal approach that combines different anesthetic and analgesic modalities in a rational way to target the distinct pain pathways, rather than relying predominantly on opioid drugs, is essential for effective control of postoperative pain, avoiding the risk of opioid-related adverse events and complications, reducing length of stay, and improving longterm outcomes.
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The efficacy of regional anesthesia and peripheral nerve blocks in the management of postoperative pain has resulted in widespread use of this approach in hip and knee arthroplasty. With extensive clinical use, however, the limitations of this approach have become apparent. ⋯ The long-acting anesthetic bupivacaine liposome injectable suspension (EXPAREL®, Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Inc), in particular, has been shown to be highly effective in managing postoperative pain and reducing opioid consumption. Consequently, a growing body of data and extensive clinical experience now support replacing nerve blocks with periarticular injections.
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Analgesic gaps--periods of inadequate pain control--commonly compromise the management of pain after joint arthroplasty. Such gaps can and should be prevented. ⋯ Multimodal analgesia should take into consideration not only the mechanisms of the individual medications, but also their timing of onset and duration of effect. And to avoid continual reestablishment of the pain pathways, it is also important to administer the medications on a scheduled basis rather than as needed.
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Reduced hospital staffing on weekends is a hypothesized risk factor for adverse health outcomes--commonly referred to as the weekend effect. We conducted a study on the effect of weekend admission on short-term outcomes among US hip fracture patients. We selected Nationwide Inpatient Sample (1998-2010) patients with a principal diagnosis of femoral neck fracture and grouped them by day of admission (weekend or weekday). ⋯ Compared with patients admitted on weekdays, patients admitted on weekends had lower mortality (OR, 0.94; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.89-0.99) and shorter mean hospital stay (estimate, 3.74%; 95% CI, 3.40-4.08) but did not differ in risk of perioperative complications (OR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.98-1.02). Weekend admission did not predict death, perioperative complications, longer hospital stay, or other adverse short-term outcomes. Our study data do not support a weekend effect among hip fracture admissions in the United States.