A&A practice
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Case Reports
Digital Ischemia Secondary to Ulnar Artery Puncture Successfully Treated by Brachial Plexus Block: A Case Report.
After vascular puncture and catheterization, arteries can have many complications that impede blood flow such as vasospasm, thrombosis, and emboli generation, among other complications. Treatment depends on severity of ischemic symptoms and can range from as mild as applying local heat packs to surgical thrombectomy. We present a case of digital ischemia secondary to vascular puncture that was successfully treated with a supraclavicular nerve block, resulting in the vascular surgery team canceling an emergent surgery.
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Accurate self-assessments enhance learning and patient care, yet resident physicians self-assess poorly. We therefore tested the effects of a consider-the-opposite (CTO) cognitive debiasing technique on self-assessment accuracy among anesthesiology residents. ⋯ Communication/leadership self-assessment accuracy improved by 5.63% (95% CI 0.001%-16.9%), but this did not meet our prespecified threshold for a meaningful effect. These findings do not suggest a compelling effect of this CTO intervention on self-assessment accuracy among trainees.
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Case Reports
Does the Diagnosis of Intraoperative Malignant Hyperthermia Require Case Termination? A Case Report.
Malignant hyperthermia (MH) is a rare genetic disorder triggered by inhalational anesthetics or depolarizing neuromuscular blocking agents that carries significant mortality if not promptly treated. The following case presents a healthy 39-year-old man who developed MH several hours into an anesthetic exposure. Rapid intraoperative stabilization tactics that paralleled intensive care unit (ICU) level care allowed for continuation of operative management as opposed to case termination given the patient was at high risk for permanent nerve palsy if the case were to be aborted during dissection.
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Evaluations performed before the day of surgery at perioperative clinics have been shown to reduce patient mortality and hospital lengths of stay. These clinics are becoming increasingly adopted worldwide. As the number of older patients undergoing surgery continues to increase, understanding the perspectives of this patient population regarding the preoperative evaluation process is essential to tailor care to their needs and preferences. ⋯ Preanesthesia assessments allow for bidirectional communication between patients and anesthesia providers, alleviating patient anxiety and allowing for vital patient information to be collected to enhance overall patient safety. Our findings indicate that preoperative assessment by an anesthesia provider is desired and valued by the older patient population, contributing to the evidence in support of the implementation of anesthesia preoperative clinics. More research is needed to determine whether tailoring preanesthesia assessments to better align with patient preferences will translate into enhanced patient-centered outcomes.
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The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education defines "nonphysician obligations" as "duties performed by nursing and allied health professionals, transport services, or clerical staff." How anesthesiology trainees understand the concept of "nonphysician obligations" and are impacted by these obligations is incompletely understood. The objective of the study was to identify how anesthesiology trainees define "nonphysician obligations," which obligations impact trainee education, and what attitudes trainees hold. ⋯ "Nonphysician obligations" are defined by a new, nuanced, specialty-specific explanatory framework, and those that impact education are summarized in distinct classes. Trainee definitions and attitudes expose possible faults in how nonphysician obligations are currently evaluated.