Hand/Wrist News

A physician practicing in a region hit hard by the opioid crisis helped develop a program that ascertains which patients in chronic pain who take opioids should undergo urine drug testing and how physicians can interpret these test results.

In the 1990s, with advancements in technology and greater patient demand, physicians began to shift from performing surgical procedures in a hospital or ASC to an office-based setting.

Pregnant women were “frequently” coprescribed opioids and psychotropic medications, researchers of a cross-sectional study wrote. These prescriptions sometimes led to antepartum hospitalization, they added.

Healio LIVE announced Orthopedics Today Hawaii 2021, which was scheduled for January 2021 in Maui, Hawaii, will be rescheduled to later in the year.

Opioid use among older Medicare beneficiaries dropped during a recent 4-year period, but a “substantial” number of these individuals were considered chronic and heavy opioid users, researchers wrote.

Wide exposure prior to thorough debridement is essential when treating Volkmann’s contracture, regardless of what the next steps to treat the patient might be, a presenter said at the American Society for Surgery of the Hand Annual Meeting.

Purdue Pharma and the United States Department of Justice announced that they have reached a deal that resolves multiyear civil and criminal investigations into the pharmaceutical company’s marketing practices related to its opioid medications.

Results presented at the American Society for Surgery of the Hand Annual Meeting showed a decrease in the number of patients with sentinel distal radius fractures who received anti-osteoporotic care despite an increase in DEXA screening.

A 39-year-old left-hand dominant man with a history of left Monteggia fracture-dislocation that was treated abroad about 10 years ago presented to clinic.

An artificial intelligence tool based on data from patients’ electronic medical records correctly identified which patients would need high doses of opioids after surgery, according to findings presented at Anesthesiology 2020.