Anesthesiology
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Editorial Comment
Availability of Inpatient Pediatric Surgery in the United States.
In 2015, the American College of Surgeons began its Children's Surgery Verification Quality Improvement Program, promulgating standards intended to promote regionalization and improve pediatric surgical care. It was hypothesized that pediatric surgical care was already highly regionalized and concentrated before implementation of the program. This study aimed to demonstrate this by describing the sites and volume of nonambulatory pediatric surgery. ⋯ Before the American College of Surgeons Children's Surgery Verification Quality Improvement Program, the vast majority of pediatric nonambulatory surgeries were already confined to a small subset of high-capability and specialty centers.
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Editorial Comment
Individualized versus Fixed Positive End-expiratory Pressure for Intraoperative Mechanical Ventilation in Obese Patients: A Secondary Analysis.
General anesthesia may cause atelectasis and deterioration in oxygenation in obese patients. The authors hypothesized that individualized positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) improves intraoperative oxygenation and ventilation distribution compared to fixed PEEP. ⋯ This secondary analysis of obese patients undergoing laparoscopic surgery found better oxygenation, lower driving pressures, and redistribution of ventilation toward dependent lung areas measured by electrical impedance tomography using individualized PEEP. The impact on patient outcome remains unclear.
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Observational Study
Factors Contributing to Lingering Pain after Surgery: The Role of Patient Expectations.
Pain that lingers beyond the early weeks after the acute postoperative period is an important risk factor for chronic postsurgical pain. This study examined the hypothesis that patients' expectations about their postsurgical pain would be independently associated with lingering postsurgical pain. ⋯ Lingering postsurgical pain is relatively common after diverse surgeries and is associated with both fixed surgical characteristics and potentially modifiable factors like pain expectations and severe acute postoperative pain.