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Surgery and Rehabilitation

Kidney Grafts Function Longer in Europe than in the United States

Written by Heidelberg University Hospital. Posted in Surgery and Rehabilitation

Kidney transplants performed in Europe are considerably more successful in the long run than those performed in the United States.

While the one-year survival rate is 90% in both Europe and the United States, after five years, 77% of the donor kidneys in Europe still function, while in the United States, this rate among white Americans is only 71%.

After ten years, graft survival for the two groups is 56% versus 46%, respectively. The lower survival rates compared to Europe also apply to Hispanic Americans, in whom 48% of the transplanted kidneys still function after ten years, and particularly to African Americans, whose graft survival is a mere 33%.

Researchers from Heidelberg have described the large discrepancy for the first time, after systematically comparing data from the world's most comprehensive study on transplant results, the Collaborative Transplant Study (CTS) in Heidelberg, with transplant data from the United States. Their research findings have now been published online in the journal Transplantation.

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Study Identifies Risk Factors for Complications after Spine Surgery

Written by Lauren Pearson & Kayee Ip. Posted in Surgery and Rehabilitation

Findings aim to help patients and surgeons address potential risks before surgical procedures

In the last 20 years, due to diagnostic and surgical advances, more and more patients have become appropriate candidates for spine surgery, and the number of these procedures performed has risen significantly. While medical experts acknowledge the potential benefits of spine surgery, they also understand that complications can reduce the success in the short and long term.

“Complications following spine surgery may have a substantial impact on the quality of life of patients as well as the outcome of the primary surgical procedure,” said orthopaedic surgeon Andrew J. Schoenfeld, MD, one of the authors of a new study recently published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS). This study identified several risk factors for a variety of complications and death shortly after spine surgery among men and women across the U.S.

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"Never Events" Might Lead to "Never Treatment”

Written by Brian S. Parsley, MD. Posted in Surgery and Rehabilitation

The efforts to decrease the incidence of preventable errors in medical treatment

The efforts by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Federal Government to improve the quality of healthcare and decrease the incidence of preventable errors in medical treatment (known as "Never Events") should be applauded. This is a difficult and complicated but important task. The American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS) and other organizations share CMS's goal of promoting high quality, safe and effective care for all patients. We have met with CMS on numerous occasions to help promote these efforts and make constructive comment on the proposed rules.

Furthermore, we support a payment system that advocates quality care, including withholding payment for certain "Never Events" that should truly not occur, such as operating on the wrong limb. Every effort should be made to eliminate preventable hospital-acquired conditions. The AAHKS is concerned that if CMS includes complications that are not always reasonably preventable on the hospital-acquired condition list, this may have the unintended negative affect of restricting patient's access to and quality of care.

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New Data Show Lasting Effects and No Serious Adverse Events with a Percutaneous Decompression Procedure for Lumbar Spinal Stenosis Patients

Written by American Academy of Pain Medicine . Posted in Surgery and Rehabilitation

Patients treated for lumbar spinal stenosis with the mild decompression procedure reported sustained improvements in pain

Patients treated for lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) with the mild decompression procedure (an alternative to open spinal surgery for many patients), reported sustained improvements in pain and mobility at one year and had no serious adverse events occur, according to the first multi-center one-year post-study follow-up of this patient cohort. Results from this prospective, evidence-based study were presented today at the American Academy of Pain Medicine’s 27th Annual Meeting.

The post-study results were presented by Timothy R. Deer MD, of The Center for Pain Relief in Charleston, West Virginia. Outcomes of the procedure were assessed one year post treatment for all available patients who had participated in the first mild multi-center U.S. clinical trial completed last year. Included in the report were 170 procedures, mostly bilateral at one or two affected levels, in fifty-eight patients who were treated with the mild therapy.

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