• Acta Anaesthesiol Scand · Jul 2024

    Malignant hyperthermia safety - A nationwide survey of publicly funded Swedish healthcare.

    • Anna Hellblom, William Pettersson Miller, Maria Soller, and Carolina Samuelsson.
    • Department of Intensive and Perioperative Care, Skåne University Hospital, Lund, Sweden.
    • Acta Anaesthesiol Scand. 2024 Jul 1; 68 (6): 788793788-793.

    BackgroundMalignant hyperthermia (MH) is a rare pharmacogenetic disorder that can lead to a life-threatening reaction during general anaesthesia with triggering agents. Prompt life-saving treatment includes the immediate administration of the antidote dantrolene. This study investigated Swedish healthcare providers' awareness and adherence to guidelines and recommendations with respect to MH and whether adherence to safe MH-praxis varies with hospital care-complexity level and private versus public management form.MethodAgreements and procurement specifications between all 21 Swedish County Councils and privately run surgical care providers were reviewed alongside with questionnaire-aided collection of information from 62 publicly funded health care providers (both privately and publicly run).ResultsNo procurement requirement specification or contract contained requirements on anaesthesia or aspects of MH. All publicly run hospitals stocked dantrolene and 28 out of 52 (54%) stocked the recommended amount. Seven out of nine (78%) of the privately run institutions stocked dantrolene, and one stocked the recommended amount. Publicly run hospitals adhered to recommendations to a greater extent than privately run institutions, both with respect to stocking of dantrolene (p = .02) and to stocking the recommended amount (p = .03).ConclusionsContracts between Swedish county councils and private surgical care subcontractors rarely outline expectations of standards for the safe practice of anaesthesia such as preparedness to handle a life-threatening MH reaction. Among Swedish publicly funded anaesthesia providers there is room for improvement in adherence to the EMHG guideline on dantrolene availability. Publicly run hospitals seem to have better compliance with these recommendations than privately run institutions. Raising awareness about current guidelines is important to improve safety for known and unknown MH-susceptible individuals.© 2024 The Authors. Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica Foundation.

      Pubmed     Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…

What will the 'Medical Journal of You' look like?

Start your free 21 day trial now.

We guarantee your privacy. Your email address will not be shared.