Rhode Island Hospital is being investigated for yet another wrong site surgery. An orthopedic surgeon at Rhode Island Hospital operated on the wrong finger during outpatient hand surgery on October 22 making this the fifth wrong-site surgery at the hospital since 2007. A statewide adoption of surgical safety procedures was recently put in place yet the wrong site surgery still occurred. To date, there have been 6 wrong site surgeries since 2007 in Rhode Island, five of them at Rhode Island Hospital.

Trainee surgeons who add virtual reality (VR) training to standard 'apprenticeship' training in key-hole surgery learn more quickly, work with greater accuracy and have less errors than those with no VR training, and perform as well as those who use additional video training.

A woman went into surgery expecting to have a brain tumor removed, but what doctors found was something --- alive. Yes, rather than a brain tumor, doctors removed a worm from Rosemary Alvarez' brain.

Only six months after undergoing a unique and innovative surgery at Michigan State University, Jake – part dog and now part machine – spends his time working out on an underwater treadmill, traversing obstacle courses and prancing around pain free.

A bit of good news out of the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta for patients undergoing surgery or an invasive procedure, their surgeons and cost-conscious hospital administrators. It's standard practice for the surgeon or their designate, (in consultation with the patient when possible), to mark the operative/invasive site using a marking pen before an operation, a precaution to ensure surgeons cut the correct spot.

An acupressure treatment applied to children undergoing anesthesia noticeably lowers their anxiety levels and makes the stress of surgery more calming for them and their families, UC Irvine anesthesiologists have learned.

When a pilot sits in the cockpit, she methodically goes through a checklist of all systems and equipment before the plane is fired up. Even if the pilot has flown that plane and route 1000 times, the items on the checklist are reviewed one by one and no-one would think of flying the plane without completing the checklist.

The day may be getting a little closer when robots will perform surgery on patients in dangerous situations or in remote locations, such as on the battlefield or in space, with minimal human guidance.

The next time you have surgery McSleepy may be with you in the operating room. Canadian researchers have developed a machine that will send you off to Dreamland. McSleepy is the new system developed by the researchers that administers drugs for general anesthesia.

The discussion on whether stenting is preferable than surgery for high-risk patients has been supported by fresh facts.

On March 26, 2008, surgeons at UC San Diego Medical Center removed an inflamed appendix through a patient’s vagina, a first in the United States. Following the 50-minute procedure, the patient, Diana Schlamadinger, reported only minor discomfort.

An estimated 2 million people in the United States are affected by carpal tunnel syndrome, according to the AANS. About half of all cases are work-related, and in fact, carpal tunnel syndrome accounts for the highest average number of days missed at work, when compared to all other work-related injuries or illnesses.