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Study: Concurrent surgeries are safe

Hospital Safety Insider, November 30, 2017

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A review of more than 2,000 neurosurgical cases published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found no greater risk of postoperative complications for patients operated on by surgeons conducting overlapping surgeries. This casts a new light on the controversial practice, which is routine at many facilities nationwide.

The study, published earlier this month, examined patients who underwent neurosurgical procedures at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta from 2014 to 2015. Of the 2,275 cases reviewed, about 43% had the surgeon remain with the patient through the entire procedure. In the other 57% of cases, the primary surgeon performed two procedures in different operating rooms.

In the 90 days following their operations, no difference was found in morbidity, mortality, or worsened outcome measures between the two groups of patients. The researchers concluded that this data suggests overlapping neurosurgeries are safe and may benefit patients by allowing sought-after specialists to see more patients.

That said, researchers did note that overlapping surgeries were notably longer than when one surgery was done at a time. And guidelines from the American College of Surgeons require that patients be informed that they’ll be undergoing a concurrent surgery.

"Surgeons must use their experience, keen intuition and respect for their own ability and limitations to carefully select patients" for overlapping surgery, the authors wrote.

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