January 11, 2023
Hospitalists can help eliminate HCV
Hospitals are the latest frontier in global efforts to diagnose and treat hepatitis C virus (HCV).
Encephalopathy in 2023
It can be a challenge to distinguish between delirium and acute encephalopathy, and both encephalopathy and delirium should be documented for correct coding.
Guidelines recommend universal screening for cannabinoids prior to surgery
New recommendations from the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine aim to help clinicians make safe, evidence-based decisions regarding the perioperative management of patients who consume cannabis.
Restrictive postop opioid protocols associated with changes in opioid prescribing, chronic use
Opioids prescribed after surgery and rates of conversion to long-term therapy decreased after a protocol limiting postop opioid prescriptions to three days or fewer was implemented at a tertiary care cancer center.
Appropriate antibiotics for CAP linked to lower 1-year cardiovascular death risk in older inpatients
A Canadian study of nearly 2,000 patients older than age 65 years who were hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) found that use of guideline-concordant antibiotic therapy was associated with a 47% reduction in cardiovascular death at one year after infection.
Low T3 syndrome associated with worse outcomes in hospitalized patients at nutritional risk
A secondary analysis of a Swiss trial found that 30-day mortality rates were almost two times higher among hospitalized patients at nutritional risk if their free triiodothyronine (T3) levels were below 3.2 pmol/L.