Patients who underwent thoracic aortic aneurysm surgery and experienced complications benefited most from early primary care provider (PCP) visits, according to a study published online June 25 in JAMA: Surgery. Patients who saw their PCP soon after a complicated surgery had a 47 percent decrease in the likelihood of 30-day readmissions compared with those who didn’t.

Nitinol Devices & Components is recalling guidewires after reports of problems during vascular procedures.

Over the course of a year, insertable cardiac monitors detected atrial fibrillation in seven times as many stroke patients as those monitored by electrocardiograpy and clinician visits, according to a study published June 26 in the New England Journal of Medicine. 

Updated recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) call for screening male smokers ages 65 and older for abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Manufacturers of testosterone products will need to add a general warning about the risk of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism in their labeling, the FDA ruled. The warning is in addition to labeling that highlights thromboembolism as a possible consequence of polycythemia.

Compared with anticoagulant therapy, thrombolysis appears to have a lower mortality risk and lower risk of recurrent pulmonary embolism, but it does not come without risks of its own, a study published online June 17 in JAMA determined.

Clinicians with stroke patients, take note: A history of repeated hospitalizations before, a long stay in the hospital after and a higher National Institutes of Health Stroke Score may increase the risk of a patient returning within 30 days.

An FDA advisory panel voted unanimously in favor of approval for a drug-coated balloon to treat patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD). The first-of-its-kind device is indicated for use in the femoropopliteal arteries.