Joshua Mayich, MD, was among three researchers who received recognition as New Brunswick (Canada) Health Research Foundation Rising Stars for their collaborative study on the patient experience during wide-awake forefoot surgery, according to Huddle.
Here are five details:
1. Dr. Mayich is an orthopedic surgeon at Fredericton, Canada -based Horizon Health Network. He specializes in foot and ankle surgery.
2. In 2017, Dr. Mayich and the study's co-authors Luke MacNeill, a psychology PhD candidate at University of New Brunswick, as well as John Wright, an anesthesiology resident at Canada-based Dalhousie University, published their study in the Foot and Ankle Surgery journal.
3. The study authors wrote that wide-awake surgeries rely on a local anesthetic, as opposed to surgery conducted with general anesthesia or sedation, and their research results showed patients who undergo surgery with the wide-awake alternative experience less postoperative pain.
4. The researchers theorized whether patients would experience distress or trauma during the wide-awake operation, but Mr. MacNeill said the study's results showed patients who underwent the procedure had tolerable experiences.
5. Dr. Mayich and Mr. MacNeill have continued researching wide-awake surgery. They published two additional papers and completed two more studies, all of which found patients felt little to no pain during surgery and, any anxiety they experienced declined steadily throughout the procedure.