JMIR Perioperative Medicine

Patient satisfaction is a key indicator of health care quality, and it guides improvement efforts. Although many local studies have examined perioperative patient satisfaction in Ethiopia, there is no comprehensive national synthesis. This gap limits the development of targeted strategies to enhance patient care.

Postoperative complications contribute significantly to patient morbidity and mortality. Early prediction of such complications could enable the care team to intervene promptly and improve patient outcomes. Existing surgical risk scores are easy to use but lack accuracy and do not provide individualized risk or guidance for clinical decision-making.

Surgical site infections (SSIs) affect 160,000 to 300,000 patients annually, increasing postoperative mortality, causing significant complications, and incurring US $3.5 to US $10 billion in excess costs each year. Effective SSI surveillance can inform strategies to mitigate these outcomes. Traditional SSI surveillance methods, primarily manual chart reviews, are costly and labor-intensive.

Open appendectomy is commonly performed under either general or spinal anesthesia. Postoperative quality of recovery, a multidimensional patient-centered measure of outcomes after surgery, is affected by the choice of anesthesia technique.

The contemporary causes of postoperative mortality in orthopedic surgery are not well characterized.

Effective postoperative communication is vital for patient recovery, yet traditional text-based discharge instructions often lead to poor comprehension and adherence, particularly among patients with limited health literacy. Although educational videos improve understanding and retention, their widespread use has been hampered by high production costs. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) offers a scalable solution for creating engaging video content.

Orthopedic trauma skills training is time-consuming and expensive. Current training modalities rely heavily on synthetic bone models, anatomical laboratory simulations, or assistance in surgeries (the apprenticeship model). Virtual reality (VR) appears to present a promising complement to current training modalities.

Artificial intelligence (AI) models are being increasingly integrated into clinical care. Moreover, the availability of publicly accessible AI resources makes them attractive to patients seeking clinical information. Little is known regarding the use of large language models as patient resources for navigating major cancer diagnoses.

There is mounting evidence to suggest that immersive virtual reality (IVR) can improve pain in older adults in community settings, yet the use of IVR postoperatively in the acute postoperative period following major elective abdominal surgery remains largely underexplored.

Measuring the optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) with ultrasound is a promising, noninvasive way to estimate intracranial pressure (ICP). While magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides high-resolution imaging, it is less accessible in urgent or perioperative settings. Comparing ONSD measurements between ultrasound and MRI may help confirm the use of ultrasound in neurosurgical patients.

Surgical education has shifted from the traditional Halstedian apprenticeship model toward incorporating simulation due to work-hour restrictions, increasing case complexity, and economic and liability pressures. Building on the success of the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery program for general surgery, the Fundamentals of Arthroscopic Surgery Training (FAST) program was developed to establish proficiency benchmarks for orthopedic trainees in basic arthroscopic skills.

Laparoscopic-guided subcostal transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block has been introduced as a surgeon-performed approach to postoperative analgesia in laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC), allowing direct visual confirmation of local anesthetic delivery without ultrasound guidance. However, evidence regarding its clinical outcomes, particularly in patients with complicated gallstone disease, remains limited.