Surgery News

Adults with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and severe obesity have a lower risk for cardiovascular disease if they undergo bariatric surgery vs. those who do not have surgery, according to study findings published in JAMA Network Open.

In the U.K., the severity of CVD comorbidities increased during the pandemic while elective admissions and procedures decreased, an observation accompanied by increased emergency admissions, researchers reported.

CHICAGO — Epicardial botulinum toxin type A injected into epicardial fat pads after cardiac surgery did not suppress incidence of postoperative atrial fibrillation compared with placebo, according to findings from the NOVA study.

CHICAGO — In patients with critical limb ischemia, surgical revascularization was superior to endovascular revascularization if there was an adequate saphenous vein conduit, according to the results of the anticipated BEST-CLI trial.

CHICAGO — In stable patients with ischemia, there was no difference between an invasive strategy and a conservative strategy of optimal medical therapy in mortality at 5.7 years, according to results of the ISCHEMIA-EXTEND study.

CHICAGO — In stable symptomatic patients with suspected CAD, a precision testing strategy was linked to a 70% reduction in death, MI or catheterization without obstructive CAD at 1 year compared with the usual testing, researchers reported.

CHICAGO — Early veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for cardiogenic shock did not improve outcomes vs. a conservative strategy allowing for downstream extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in case of further hemodynamic decline, a speaker reported.

CHICAGO — In infants undergoing heart surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass, the use of the steroid methylprednisolone did not reduce odds of a worse outcome compared with placebo, according to the STRESS trial.

CHICAGO — The number of Medicare beneficiaries participating in cardiac rehabilitation dropped significantly at the onset of the pandemic and had yet to return to pre-pandemic levels as of December 2021, a speaker reported.

N-acetylcysteine, an antioxidant supplement, administered with carvedilol did not prevent postoperative atrial fibrillation in patients who underwent CABG compared with carvedilol alone, data from a single-center study show.