Anesthesia

Different brain states produce different waves of electrical activity, with the brain entering deeply quiescent states during general anesthesia or coma, according to a Medical Xpress report.

The American Society of Anesthesiologists has joined several other organizations in urging CMS to include assessment, diagnosis, treatment and management of acute or chronic pain in the "essential health benefits" package under healthcare reform, according to an ASA release.

Editor's note: This article by Tony Mira, president and CEO of Anesthesia Business Consultants, an anesthesia & pain management billing and practice management services company, originally appeared in Anesthesia Business Consultants eAlerts, a free electronic newsletter. Sign-up to receive this…

Edward Lin, MD, an anesthesiologist-turned-entrepreneur from Sarasota, Fla., has invented a device that could drastically improve complex chronic wound care, according to a Gulf Coast Business Review report.

Eugene Lipov, MD, a physician at Oak Brook (Ill.) Surgical Center, has developed a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a My FOX Chicago report.

A Mayo Clinic study has revealed that children who undergo two or more surgeries by the age of two are twice as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD by the time they are 19, according to a TIME report.

General anesthesia is safer than regional anesthesia for patients undergoing minimally invasive treatment for liver cancer, according to a study published in Anesthesia & Analgesia.

A special wound catheter used to infuse local anesthetic into the hip joint can provide improved post-operative pain control for patients undergoing hip replacement surgery, according to a study published in Anesthesia & Analgesia.

CMS has announced that anesthesia codes that include the phrase "not otherwise specified" in their descriptions (including procedure codes 00100-01996) do not meet the criteria of a non-specified procedure code, according to an ASA release.

The average annual pay for a Houston-based anesthesiologist is $221,120, the highest-paying healthcare profession in the city, according to an analysis of 2010 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data by the Houston Business Journal.