Annals of surgery
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Racial and ethnic inequities in surgical care in the United States are well documented. Less is understood about evidence-based interventions that improve surgical care and reduce or eliminate inequities. In this review, we discuss effective patient, surgeon, community, health care system, policy, and multi-level interventions to reduce inequities and identifying gaps in intervention-based research. ⋯ Achieving surgical equity will require implementing evidenced-based interventions to improve quality for racial and ethnic minorities. Moving beyond description toward elimination of racial and ethnic inequities in surgical care will require prioritizing funding of intervention-based research, utilization of implementation science and community based-participatory research methodology, and principles of learning health systems.
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The authors sought to compare the incidence of adverse cardiovascular (CV) events in older adults with primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) treated with parathyroidectomy versus nonoperative management. ⋯ In this large, population-based cohort study, parathyroidectomy was associated with a lower long-term incidence of adverse CV outcomes when compared with nonoperative management for older adults with PHPT, which is relevant to surgical decision making for patients with a long life expectancy.
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This study aims to identify opportunities to improve surgical equity by evaluating unmet social health needs by race, ethnicity, and insurance type. ⋯ Unmet social health needs vary significantly by race, ethnicity, and insurance, and are independently associated with poor health among surgical populations. As providers and policymakers prioritize improving surgical equity, unmet social health needs are potential modifiable targets.
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To compare patient-reported outcomes before and after implementation of evidence-based, procedure-specific opioid prescribing guidelines. ⋯ Prescribing guidelines successfully reduced opioid prescribing without increased refill rates. Despite decreased prescribing overall, there was a continued reluctance to prescribe no opioids after surgery. Although most patients experienced good pain control, there remains a subset of patients whose pain is not optimally managed in the era of reduced opioid prescribing.
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To assess associations between co-occurring preoperative smoking and risky alcohol use on the likelihood of adverse surgical outcomes. ⋯ The combination of smoking and risky drinking conferred the highest likelihood of complications, readmission, and reoperation before surgery. Co-occurring alcohol and smoking at the time of surgery warrants special attention as a patient risk factor and deserves additional research.