JAMA surgery
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Review Meta Analysis Comparative Study
Comparison of outcomes of synthetic mesh vs suture repair of elective primary ventral herniorrhaphy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
More than 350,000 ventral hernias are repaired in the United States annually, of which 75% are primary ventral hernias (eg, umbilical or epigastric hernias). Despite the volume, there is insufficient evidence to support the use of sutures vs mesh for primary ventral hernia repairs. ⋯ Mesh repair has a small reduction in recurrence rates compared with suture repairs for primary ventral hernias, but an increased risk of seroma and SSI was observed. Further high-quality studies are necessary to determine whether suture or mesh repair leads to improved outcomes for primary ventral hernias.
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Quality improvement platforms commonly use risk-adjusted morbidity and mortality to profile hospital performance. However, given small hospital caseloads and low event rates for some procedures, it is unclear whether these outcomes reliably reflect hospital performance. ⋯ Most commonly reported outcome measures have low reliability for differentiating hospital performance. This is especially important for clinical registries that sample rather than collect 100% of cases, which can limit hospital case accrual. Eliminating sampling to achieve the highest possible caseloads, adjusting for reliability, and using advanced modeling strategies (eg, hierarchical modeling) are necessary for clinical registries to increase their benchmarking reliability.
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Comparative Study
Factors associated with the disposition of severely injured patients initially seen at non–trauma center emergency departments: disparities by insurance status.
Trauma is the leading cause of potential years of life lost before age 65 years in the United States. Timely care in a designated trauma center has been shown to reduce mortality by 25%. However, many severely injured patients are not transferred to trauma centers after initially being seen at non–trauma center emergency departments (EDs). ⋯ Patients with severe injuries initially evaluated at non–trauma center EDs were less likely to be transferred if insured and were at risk of receiving suboptimal trauma care. Efforts in monitoring and optimizing trauma interhospital transfers and outcomes at the population level are warranted.
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Disparities in operative mortality due to socioeconomic status (SES) have been consistently demonstrated, but the mechanisms underlying this disparity are not well understood. ⋯ Patients in the lowest quintile of SES have significantly increased rates of FTR. This finding appears to be in part a function of the hospital where patients with low SES are treated. Future efforts to improve socioeconomic disparities should concentrate on hospital processes and characteristics that contribute to successful rescue.
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Comparative Study
Perioperative glucocorticoid prescribing habits in patients with inflammatory bowel disease: a call for standardization.
High-dose glucocorticoids (GCs) are routinely given to surgical patients with a history of GC exposure to prevent perioperative acute adrenal insufficiency, but this practice is not well supported. ⋯ Perioperative GC dosing among patients with IBD undergoing colorectal surgery is highly variable even within a single center. Additional studies are needed to define the risk of postoperative adrenal insufficiency and establish standardized practices for perioperative GC therapy, which may have the benefit of reducing GC overuse.