Month: March 2024

Uncategorized Published - 22 March, 2024    By - Dr Clemens
Senate Finance Committee grills Becerra on HHS’ delayed relief in Change Healthcare cyberattack

By Dave Muoio Fierce Heathcare Influential senators held Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra’s feet to the fire on Thursday, urging him and his department to deliver prompt relief and maintain pressure on industry to invest in cybersecurity. (Senate Finance Committee) Leading senators want the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), insurers […]

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Uncategorized Published - 21 March, 2024    By - Dr Clemens
Can Anesthesiologists Prevent Perioperative Neurocognitive Decline? A Review of the Literature

Authors: Lena Scotto, MD; Natalie Moreland, MD ASA Monitor March 2024, Vol. 88, 35. Individuals over the age of 65 make up the largest proportion of patients seeking surgical care. Advanced age and underlying cognitive disorders are risk factors for the development of cognitive impairment, the most common complication in this age group. Perioperative neurocognitive disorders (PNDs) […]

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Uncategorized Published - 21 March, 2024    By - Dr Clemens
Measures for MIPS: AQI NACOR Approved as QCDR and QR for 2024

Authors: Cathlin Bowman-Young, MBA; Matthew T. Popovich, PhD ASA Monitor March 2024, Vol. 88, 24–25. As anesthesiologists and their groups are wrapping up the 2023 Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) reporting year, we realize that those same groups are determining their MIPS 2024 quality measures and improvement activities to report. We take a moment to share with […]

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Uncategorized Published - 21 March, 2024    By - Dr Clemens
Trends in Anesthesia

ASA Monitor March 2024, Vol. 88, 14. CD8+ T cell activity could improve effectiveness of HIV vaccine A study funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases suggests that an effective HIV vaccine might need to stimulate robust responses from CD8+ T cells to protect against HIV acquisition. In HIV infection, the virus damages […]

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Uncategorized Published - 21 March, 2024    By - Dr Clemens
Global Critical Care: Key Articles You Missed from Around the Globe

Authors: Alhassan Datti Mohammed, BM, BCh, DA (Ibadan), FWACS et al  ASA Monitor March 2024, Vol. 88, 17–19. Critical care is time-critical care provided anywhere a critically ill patient needs it. Not exclusive to the intensive care unit, critically ill patients are pediatric, elderly, parturient, and adults. At the 2023 World Health Assembly, the “ECO” resolution […]

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Uncategorized Published - 21 March, 2024    By - Dr Clemens
Overriding the ‘Culture of Music’ in the OR

Author: Robin Hocevar ASA Monitor March 2024, Vol. 88, 34. It’s every anesthesiologist’s worst nightmare. On a Friday afternoon, a teenage boy presents to the OR for a routine ACL surgery. The surgical team worked while listening to music and chatting about weekend plans. Nobody on the team could hear the descending pitch of the pulse […]

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Uncategorized Published - 20 March, 2024    By - Dr Clemens
In the Weeds: Nation’s First Guidelines for Management of Perioperative Patients on Cannabis

Author: Kim Sumrak ASA Monitor March 2024, Vol. 88, 30–33. Figure: ASRA Pain Medicine consensus guidelines on the management of the perioperative patient on cannabis and cannabinoids: an infographic. (Reg Anesth Pain Med 2023;48:119). Whether due to legalization, culture change, or other reasons, Americans have been using more cannabis over the past 20 years. According to the […]

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Uncategorized Published - 20 March, 2024    By - Dr Clemens
Committee on Environmental Health Releases New Edition of ‘Greening the Operating Room and Perioperative Arena’

Author: Jodi D. Sherman, MD ASA Monitor March 2024, Vol. 88, 9–10. The ASA Committee on Environmental Health is pleased to announce the release of the third edition of Greening the Operating Room and Perioperative Arena: Environmental Sustainability in Anesthesia Practice (asamonitor.pub/GORPA). This resource document is widely read and referenced by clinicians, administrators, and policymakers across […]

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Uncategorized Published - 20 March, 2024    By - Dr Clemens
µ-opioid receptor activation at the dorsal reticular nucleus shifts diffuse noxious inhibitory controls to hyperalgesia in chronic joint pain in male rats

Authors: Raquel Pereira-Silva, PhD et al  Anesthesiology February 2024. Background The dorsal reticular nucleus is a pain facilitatory area involved in the diffuse noxious inhibitory controls (DNIC), through opioidergic mechanisms that are poorly understood. We hypothesized that signaling of µ-opioid receptors is altered in this area at prolonged chronic inflammatory pain and that this accounts […]

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Uncategorized Published - 20 March, 2024    By - Dr Clemens
Trends in Anesthesia

ASA Monitor March 2024, Vol. 88, 14. Heart-valve infection death rate increases Recent analysis of research based on death certificate data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicated an overall decline in infective endocarditis death rates in the U.S. from 1999 to 2020. Death rates increased significantly, however, for young adults at an […]

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