Anesthesiology
-
To establish guidelines for the preparation of the Primus anesthetic workstation (Dräger, Lübeck, Germany) for malignant hyperthermia-susceptible patients, the authors evaluated the effect of replacing the workstation's exchangeable internal components on the washout of isoflurane. ⋯ Washout of isoflurane increased 20-fold with the use of an autoclaved ventilator diaphragm and integrated breathing system. To prepare the Primus for malignant hyperthermia-susceptible patients, the authors recommend replacing the ventilator diaphragm and integrated breathing system with autoclaved components, flushing the workstation for 5 min at a fresh gas flow of 10 l/min, and maintaining this flow for the duration of anesthesia.
-
Procedure times are important variables that often are included in studies of quality and efficiency. However, due to the need for costly chart review, most studies are limited to single-institution analyses. In this article, the authors describe how well the anesthesia claim from Medicare can estimate chart times. ⋯ Anesthesia chart time can be well estimated using Medicare claims, thereby facilitating studies with vastly larger sample sizes and much lower costs of data collection.