American College of Surgeons, Oct. 4-7

The annual meeting of the American College of Surgeons was held this year from Oct. 4 to 7 in Chicago and attracted participants from around the world, including surgeons, medical experts, allied health professionals, and administrators. The conference included hundreds of general and specialty sessions, postgraduate courses, scientific paper presentations, video-based education presentations, and posters focusing on the latest advances in surgical care.In a retrospective study, Erryk S. Katayama, a medical student at The Ohio State University College of Medicine in Columbus, and colleagues found that depression is associated with a lower likelihood of achieving optimal postoperative outcomes, but antidepressant treatment can mitigate the size of these negative effects.The authors identified patients with colorectal, hepatobiliary, and pancreatic cancers who were also diagnosed with depression 12 months before or after a cancer diagnosis using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare database. They found that depression was associated with worse postoperative outcomes, including complications, length of stay, readmission, mortality, and expenditures. Meanwhile, receipt of antidepressants perioperatively decreased the effect of depression on adverse outcomes."The results of this study may inform future prospective studies which more specifically examine the role of mental health care in perioperative management," Katayama said. "Multidisciplinary care may help optimize surgical outcomes."Press ReleaseIn another study, Krista L. Haines, D.O., of the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, and colleagues found that drug use is reshaping the pattern of accidental injury deaths, and both public health and clinical care need to keep pace.The authors assessed trends in mortality rates associated with drug-related unintentional injury between 2018 and 2023 using the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER) database.The researchers found that deaths from unintentional injuries linked to drugs increased by nearly 60 percent in the past five years. Adults 35 to 44 years of age had the highest risk for dying from drug-related accidental injuries. Rates were higher among men and among Black Americans, though these differences were not statistically significant after multivariable adjustment."Trauma teams should anticipate drug involvement and its effect on resuscitation and outcomes," Haines said. "Integrating injury prevention with drug use prevention could reduce both overdose and trauma-related deaths."Press ReleasePatrick J. Sweigert, M.D., of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, and colleagues found that the newest generation of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, including semaglutide and tirzepatide, are increasingly being used in combination with surgery for patients with obesity or overweight.The authors note that nearly a quarter of all patients in 2024 undergoing metabolic and bariatric surgery were prescribed semaglutide or tirzepatide before surgery, which was up from only 2.8 percent of patients in 2020."Not only are we seeing a rise in the incidence of obesity in the U.S., but we are also experiencing a paradigm shift in the management of obesity as a chronic relapsing and remitting disease," Sweigert said. "GLP-1 medications can be powerful tools to help patients reach treatment goals, and providers are increasingly employing their utilization prior to bariatric interventions."Press ReleaseACS: THC Positivity Detected in More Than 40 Percent of Deceased Drivers in Motor Vehicle CrashesTHURSDAY, Oct. 9, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- More than four in 10 drivers who die in motor vehicle collisions test positive for active delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol in their system, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Surgeons, held from Oct. 4 to 7 in Chicago.Read Full TextACS: Rectal Bleeding Tied to More Than Eightfold Higher Risk for Early-Onset Colorectal CancerTHURSDAY, Oct. 9, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- Adults younger than 50 years of age undergoing colonoscopy have a dramatically higher risk for colorectal cancer when the procedure is done for rectal bleeding, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Surgeons, held from Oct. 4 to 7 in Chicago.Read Full TextACS: 2020 to 2024 Saw Jump in Use of GLP-1 Receptor Agonists Before Metabolic, Bariatric SurgeryTHURSDAY, Oct. 9, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- The use of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists before surgery rose 16-fold among patients undergoing metabolic and bariatric surgery from 2020 to 2024, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Surgeons, held from Oct. 4 to 7 in Chicago. Read Full Text.Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

American College of Surgeons, Oct. 4-7

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