Anaesthesia and intensive care
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Nov 2020
From cholera to COVID-19: How pandemics have shaped the development of anaesthesia and intensive care medicine.
The infectious pandemics and epidemics of the past 200 years have caused millions of deaths. However, these devastating events have also led to creative thinking, imaginative experimentation and the evolution of medical care. As a result, the history of critical care medicine is entwined with the story of these global disasters. This article will take case studies from recent pandemics and epidemics and examine their impact on the development of anaesthesia and intensive care medicine.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Nov 2020
The East-Freeman Automatic Vent: An interesting footnote in the history of mechanical ventilation.
An example of the East-Freeman Automatic Vent from Oxford was found in the early anaesthesia equipment collection at St George Hospital, Sydney. It weighs less than 200 g and is representative of a group of miniature ventilators that were described in the 1960s, including the Minivent from South Africa and the Microvent from Canada. All relied on a pressure-operated inflating valve that was described in 1966 by Mitchell and Epstein from Oxford. ⋯ This led to pressure in the lungs rising towards the driving pressure. There was a risk of barotrauma to the patient if the system was not promptly disconnected. While theyhad provided an alternative to hand bagging, they were superseded, as more sophisticated and safer ventilators became widely available.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Nov 2020
Adult cardiopulmonary bypass in Australian and New Zealand public hospitals: A survey of practice.
A telephone survey of cardiac anaesthetists and perfusionists at the 29 public hospitals providing adult cardiac surgical services in Australia and New Zealand was carried out between December 2019 and January 2020. The aim was to investigate current practice with regard to selected contentious elements of anaesthetic and perfusion management during cardiopulmonary bypass; primarily relating to bypass circuit priming, blood conservation methods and point-of-care coagulation testing. There was a 100% response rate. ⋯ The cardiopulmonary bypass circuit prime solution was primarily a balanced crystalloid in most hospitals; however, there was significant variation regarding the addition of human albumin, mannitol, sodium bicarbonate and other medications. Many of the interventions examined were used on a case-by-case basis. These findings support the need for further research to define more evidence-based practice of these interventions.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Nov 2020
2019 World Congress of Intensive Care: Hosted by the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society, the Australian College of Critical Care Nurses, and the World Federation of Societies of Intensive and Critical Care Medicine, 14-18 October 2019, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, Melbourne, Australia.
Abstracts are published as supplied and have not been subject to editorial review or correction.