• M Lilot, J M Ehrenfeld, C Lee, B Harrington, M Cannesson, and J Rinehart.
• Department of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Care, UCI Medical Center, 101 the City Drive South, Orange, CA, USA Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Louis Pradel Hospital, Hospices Civils de Lyon, 60 avenue du Doyen Lepine, Bron 69300, France.
• Br J Anaesth. 2015 May 1;114(5):767-76.

BackgroundVariation in clinical practice in the perioperative environment and intensive care unit is a major challenge facing modern medicine. The objective of the present study was to analyse intraoperative crystalloid administration practices at two academic medical centres in the USA.MethodsWe extracted clinical data from patients undergoing intra-abdominal procedures performed at UC Irvine (UCI) and Vanderbilt University (VU) Medical Centres. Limiting data to uncomplicated elective surgery with minimal blood loss, we quantified variability in fluid administration within individual providers, between providers, and between types of procedures using a corrected coefficient of variation (cCOV). Regression was performed using a general linear model to determine factors most predictive of fluid administration.ResultsFor provider analysis and model building, 1327 UCI and 4585 VU patients were used. The average corrected crystalloid infusion rate across all providers at both institutions was 7.1 (sd 4.9) ml kg(-1) h(-1), an overall cCOV of 70%. Individual providers ranged from 2.3 (sd 3.7) to 14 (sd 10) ml kg(-1) h(-1). The final regression model strongly favoured personnel as predictors over other patient predictors.ConclusionsWide variability in crystalloid administration was observed both within and between individual anaesthesia providers, which might contribute to variability in surgical outcomes.© The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Journal of Anaesthesia. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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