http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress provides the latest news from American College of Surgeons Chicago (May 10, 2013): Ambient background noise—whether it is the sound of loud surgical equipment, talkative team members, or music—is a patient and surgical safety factor that can affect auditory processing among surgeons and the members of their team in the operating room (OR), according to a new study that appears in the May issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. The findings are the first to demonstrate that a surgeon's ability to understand spoken words in the OR is directly affected by noise in the environment. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-background-noise-room-impair-surgical.html Surgery Fri, 10 May 2013 13:00:01 EST news287408106 A major challenge facing today's health care community is to find ways to lower costs without compromising clinical quality. Taking that challenge to task, researchers at Medstar Health and Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington DC, report success in using a concept called "value-based analysis," which simultaneously measures quality and cost and addresses inefficiencies in care. The researchers applied a value-based analysis approach to implementing a single best practice for preventing deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in surgical patients and were able to reduce hospital costs in excess of $1.5 million per year. The study appears in the April issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-dvt-hospital-million-annually.html Surgery Wed, 10 Apr 2013 15:00:07 EST news284823842 Patients faced with the diagnosis of a life-threatening liver disease have to consider the seriousness of having a liver transplant, which can be a definitive cure for many acquired and genetic liver diseases. Among the main considerations are the anxiety of waiting for a donor organ, the risks associated with the transplant operation, and the chance that the transplant procedure will not achieve the desired result. There is also the six-figure cost of the procedure and accompanying patient care, all of which may not be completely covered by health insurance. But, according to a study appearing in the April issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, researchers at the David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA), found that liver transplants are worth the risk for people who have genetic liver conditions. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-liver-transplantation-patients-genetic-conditions.html Surgery Fri, 05 Apr 2013 15:01:52 EST news284392900 Women who have had the lymph nodes under their arm surgically removed during breast cancer treatment are warned to avoid certain practices that can cause lymphedema—a condition that causes chronic, painless swelling in the arm. Now, a new study published in the March issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons suggests that the vast majority of women who undergo breast cancer operations worry about developing this complication and that this fear far exceeds their actual risk of getting lymphedema. In fact, most women adopt four to five commonly recommended measures to prevent this incurable condition despite little data supporting the efficacy of these precautionary behaviors. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-breast-cancer-patients-lymphedema.html Surgery Mon, 25 Feb 2013 12:44:18 EST news281018650 Colorectal surgical patients are often discharged from the hospital with vague guidance on how to recognize complications, but researchers at the Michael DeBakey Veterans Administration (VA) Medical Center and Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, aim to change that scenario. A health services research team convened a panel of surgical experts to develop a list of postoperative complication signs that should prompt colorectal surgical patients to call their surgeons or go to an emergency room. The study on the development of this early patient-centered warning system appears in the February 2013 issue of Journal of the American College of Surgeons. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-specific-complications-colorectal-surgical-patients.html Surgery Thu, 07 Feb 2013 14:48:46 EST news279470910 When researchers from UCLA Medical Center investigated the link between racial disparities and appendicitis outcomes in children, they found that the type of hospital in which black, Hispanic and other minority patients receive care—community, children's or county—affects their odds of developing a perforated appendix. The study published in the January issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons is a first-of-its-kind look at the role hospital type plays in race-based treatment variances among this patient subset. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-racial-disparities-pediatric-appendicitis-treatment.html Surgery Fri, 28 Dec 2012 12:43:40 EST news275921014 As the nation grapples with surging health care costs, researchers at the University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, and Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center, Hartford, have confirmed two simple cost-effective methods to reduce expensive postoperative complications—communications team training and a surgical checklist. Investigators found that when surgical teams completed communications training and a surgical procedure checklist before, during, and after high-risk operations, patients experienced fewer adverse events such as infections and blood clots. The study is published in the December issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-surgical-checklist-costly-postoperative-complications.html Surgery Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:15:04 EST news273939291 An acute care surgery model led to improvement in the quality of surgical patient care and reduced the cost of emergency surgical care at Loma Linda University Medical Center, report researchers who published their findings in the November issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-acute-surgical-quality-lowers-procedures.html Surgery Wed, 07 Nov 2012 14:45:52 EST news271521942 Wounded soldiers who sustained chest injuries in Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (Iraq) had higher mortality rates than soldiers in Korea and Vietnam, according to a military trauma study presented at the 2012 American College of Surgeons Annual Clinical Congress. However, better battlefield triage and transport may have meant that severely wounded soldiers whom would have been considered killed in action in previous conflicts are more likely to get sent to trauma centers in the United States sooner in their course of care, study authors explained. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-battlefield-triage-severely-wounded-soldiers.html Surgery Thu, 04 Oct 2012 12:20:01 EST news268571165 Surgeons are making progress toward preventing initial and recurrent episodes of clostridium difficile colitis (C. difficile or C. diff), a vicious bacterial infection that is estimated to affect about 336,000 people each year, typically patients on antibiotics. Using mouse models, researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Boston, found that an oral medication may prevent C. difficile infections (CDI). Also, surgeons at Penn State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, examined human patients to detect a genetic mutation that could steer treatments to prevent repeat infections. The findings from these two separate novel studies were recently presented at the 2012 Annual American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress in Chicago. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-tackling-recurrent-bouts-health-care-associated.html Surgery Thu, 04 Oct 2012 11:30:35 EST news268569022 Advanced surgical techniques such as robotic-assisted operations and minimally invasive surgical procedures may extend survival and improve recovery in octogenarians with bladder and colorectal cancers when compared with patients who undergo conventional open operations according to two new studies presented at the 2012 Annual Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-advanced-surgical-approaches-benefit-elderly.html Cancer Wed, 03 Oct 2012 16:00:01 EST news268488976 Colon cancer patients living in rural areas are less likely to receive an early diagnosis, chemotherapy, or thorough surgical treatment when compared with patients living in urban areas. Rural residents are also more likely to die from their colon cancer than urban patients, according to new research findings from surgeons at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The study was presented earlier today at the American College of Surgeons 2012 Annual Clinical Congress. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-surgeons-rural-colon-cancer-patients.html Cancer Wed, 03 Oct 2012 12:35:22 EST news268486513 Regenerative-medicine researchers have moved a promising step closer to helping infertile, premenopausal women produce enough eggs to become pregnant. Today, surgeons at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center's Institute for Regenerative Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC, reported that they were able to stimulate ovarian cell production using an in vitro rat model, and observed as the cells matured into very early-stage eggs that could possibly be fertilized. Results from this novel study were presented at the 2012 American College of Surgeons Annual Clinical Congress. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-surgeons-recreate-eggs-vitro-infertility.html Surgery Tue, 02 Oct 2012 18:50:01 EST news268408691 An answer to the simple question—"Have you recently taken a fall?"—can tell a surgeon how well an older adult may recover from a major operation according to researchers from the University of Colorado, Denver. New study findings, reported today at the 2012 Annual Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons (ACS), indicate that preopera-tive falls in older surgical patients are a powerful predictor of complications, prolonged hospital stays, and higher rates of disability. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-surgeons-associate-preoperative-falls-worse.html Surgery Mon, 01 Oct 2012 18:30:01 EST news268330025 Researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York City have shown that a new vaccinia virus, acting as both an oncolytic and anti-angiogenic agent, can enter and kill triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells. Study findings presented today at the 2012 Annual Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons could lead to a more targeted therapy against this deadly form of breast cancer. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-small-pox-virus-potential-triple-negative.html Cancer Mon, 01 Oct 2012 14:00:04 EST news268308447