Articles: surgery.
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This study examined the association between insurance type and postoperative unplanned care encounters among patients on long-term opioid therapy prior to surgery. ⋯ Among patients on preoperative long-term opioid therapy, unplanned care encounters were higher among patients with Medicaid when compared to private insurance. While this is likely multifactorial, differences by insurance status may point to disparities in underlying social determinants of health and suggest the need for postoperative care pathways that address these gaps.
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To investigate the relationships between opioid prescribing, consumption, and patient reported outcomes (PROs) in emergency surgery patients. ⋯ Patients only consumed half of the opioids they were prescribed after undergoing emergency surgery. Additionally, patients who were given larger prescriptions consumed more opioids, but did not experience less pain, higher satisfaction, better quality of life, or less regret to undergo surgery. Overall, this suggests that opioids may be excessively prescribed to patients undergoing emergency surgical procedures, and that larger prescriptions do not improve the patient experience after surgery.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Mar 2024
ReviewTransvaginal mesh or grafts or native tissue repair for vaginal prolapse.
Pelvic organ prolapse is the descent of one or more of the pelvic organs (uterus, vaginal apex, bladder, or bowel) into the vagina. In recent years, surgeons have increasingly used grafts in transvaginal repairs. Graft material can be synthetic or biological. The aim is to reduce prolapse recurrence and surpass the effectiveness of traditional native tissue repair (colporrhaphy) for vaginal prolapse. This is a review update; the previous version was published in 2016. ⋯ While transvaginal permanent mesh is associated with lower rates of awareness of prolapse, repeat surgery for prolapse, and prolapse on examination than native tissue repair, it is also associated with higher rates of total repeat surgery (for prolapse, stress urinary incontinence, or mesh exposure), bladder injury, and de novo stress urinary incontinence. While the direction of effects and effect sizes are relatively unchanged from the 2016 version of this review, the certainty and precision of the findings have all improved with a larger sample size. In addition, the clinical relevance of these data has improved, with 10 trials reporting 3- to 10-year outcomes. The risk-benefit profile means that transvaginal mesh has limited utility in primary surgery. Data on the management of recurrent prolapse are of limited quality. Given the risk-benefit profile, we recommend that any use of permanent transvaginal mesh should be conducted under the oversight of the local ethics committee in compliance with local regulatory recommendations. Data are not supportive of absorbable meshes or biological grafts for the management of transvaginal prolapse.
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To determine whether hospital- and surgeon-level operative volumes are associated with differences in postoperative outcomes among infants undergoing elective lung surgery for a congenital lung malformation (CLM). ⋯ In this cohort study of infants undergoing elective lung resection for a CLM, lower volume providers were associated with higher postoperative patient morbidity. These findings represent an opportunity to inform quality improvement initiatives on pediatric lung resection and the debate on surgical subspecialization for this unique patient population.