April 25, 2024
Growing demand for anesthesia services at ASCs is being met with a dwindling supply of anesthesia providers....
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By: OSD Staff
Published: 9/4/2008
Cataract Benchmarks
How Do You Compare to These Stats?
Every summer for the last 20 years, David Leaming, MD, a practicing ophthalmologist in Palm Springs, Calif., has mailed out the Practice Styles and Preferences of ASCRS Members survey. Dr. Leaming found that cataract surgeons are:
Dr. Leaming mailed 4,658 surveys and received 691 responses. See more at www.analeyz.com.
— Kent Steinriede
Gliding Around
(Hand) Size Matters
Getting a Grip Can Be a Challenge for Female Surgeons
Here's something to keep in mind as more female surgeons pass through your ORs: The laparoscopic instruments currently on the market might be too big for comfortable handling by women users.
According to a study published online in Surgical Endoscopy, the journal of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons, instruments designed by medical device manufacturers to fit the hands of male surgeons can cause female surgeons hand and upper extremity discomfort. They can also make the equipment awkward and challenging to use while making cases longer to perform, say researchers, who asked surgery residents at four universities to rate their comfort level with such common disposable laparoscopic instruments as surgical staplers, harmonic scalpels and sealing systems.
They found that as the respondents' glove sizes increased, so did the level of ease with which they used the instruments. Female respondents (whose average surgical glove size is 6.5) reported that they frequently needed to use two hands to effectively use the instruments. In contrast, male respondents (whose average glove size is 7.5) required only one hand to accomplish the same maneuvers.
— Dan O'Connor
When Opioids Backfire
It's a rare and challenging pain management paradox: Opioids, designed to relieve acute and chronic pain, can have the reverse effect in some patients and actually exacerbate it. A new study offers strategies for combating this complication, called opioid-induced hyperalgesia (OIH). For a paper published in Pain Treatment Topics, Peggy Compton, RN, PhD, an associate professor of nursing at the University of California Los Angeles School of Nursing, examined decades of laboratory and clinical evidence of OIH, including research showing a higher incidence of post-operative OIH in patients who had received short-acting opioids during various abdominal surgeries.
Theories for why opioids reduce some patients' tolerance for pain range from genetic factors to the pain's type and source. Noting that increasing the opioid dose worsens the pain associated with OIH, Dr. Compton recommends these strategies for preventing or minimizing OIH's effects:
Dr. Compton also suggests you closely monitor patients' responses to opioid therapy and differentiate between OIH and such opioid-related conditions as tolerance, withdrawal, addiction and pseudoaddiction.
— Irene Tsikitas
InstaPoll Update
You'll find a new InstaPoll on www.outpatientsurgery.net every Monday morning. Here's a look back at the results of recent polls.
Marble Mania
Growing demand for anesthesia services at ASCs is being met with a dwindling supply of anesthesia providers....
Improvements in both workflow and staff attitudes are part of a leader’s responsibilities, but your interventions in these areas don’t need to be major to make...
The ASC market continues its rapid growth. In 2023, roughly 116 new ASCs opened in the U.S., many of which were orthopedic-specific in nature....