Both modified epoetin alfa regimens were effective compared with placebo in reducing allogeneic transfusion in patients undergoing hip arthroplasty. Patients who received high-dose epoetin alfa had the lowest transfusion rate.

Epoetin alfa administered at 40,000 U qw is effective in improving QOL, maintaining hemoglobin level, and reducing transfusion requirements in breast cancer patients. The high effectiveness observed could be attributed in part to early treatment with epoetin alfa.

Object Surgical complications increase the cost of health care worldwide and directly contribute to patient morbidity and mortality. In an effort to mitigate morbidity and incentivize best practices, stakeholders such as health insurers and the US government are linking reimbursement to patient outcomes. In this study the authors analyzed a national database to determine basic metrics of how comorbidities specifically affect the subspecialty of neurosurgery. Methods Data on 1,777,035 patients for the years 2006–2011 were acquired from the American College of Surgeons (ACS) National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) database. Neurosurgical cases were extracted by querying the data for which the surgical specialty was listed as “neurological surgery.” Univariate statistics were calculated using the chi-square test, and 95% confidence intervals were determined for the resultant risk ratios. A multivariate model was constructed using significant variables from the univariate analysis (p < 0.05) with binary logistic regression. Results Over 38,000 neurosurgical cases were analyzed, with complications occurring in 14.3%. Cranial cases were 2.6 times more likely to have complications than spine cases, and African Americans and Asians/Pacific Islanders were also at higher risk. The most frequent complications were bleeding requiring transfusion (4.5% of patients) and reoperation within 30 days of the initial operation (4.3% of patients), followed by failure to wean from mechanical ventilation postoperatively (2.5%). Significant predictors of complications included preoperative stroke, sepsis, blood transfusion, and chronic steroid use. Conclusions Understanding the landscape of neurosurgical complications will allow better targeting of the most costly and harmful complications of preventive measures. Data from the ACS NSQIP database provide a starting point for developing paradigms of improved care of neurosurgical patients.

BACKGROUND: New supervisory regulations highlight the challenge of balancing housestaff supervision and autonomy. To better understand the impact of increased supervision on residency training, we investigated housestaff perceptions of education, autonomy, and clinical decisionmaking before and after implementation of an in-hospital, overnight attending physician (nocturnist).

Epoetin alfa administered to patients with cancer-related anemia for up to 16 weeks resulted in significantly improved QOL, increased hemoglobin levels, and decreased transfusion use. These benefits were observed in cancer patients who were not receiving chemotherapy as well as those who were.