Anaesthesia and intensive care
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Nov 2015
Teaching and learning in undergraduate anaesthesia: a quantitative and qualitative analysis of practice at the University of Auckland.
Anaesthesia encompasses a broad range of knowledge and skills of relevance to graduating doctors. For the majority of new doctors, an undergraduate clinical rotation is their only exposure to anaesthesia practice. However, the content and approach to undergraduate anaesthesia education varies between institutions. ⋯ Our study found much unanticipated variability in student exposure, teaching practice and attitudes to teaching various skills or procedures between anaesthetists, and student opinion of their clinical attachment. The findings resulted in a review of many aspects of the attachment. It is likely that other institutions will have similar variability and we recommend they undertake similar exercises to optimise teaching and learning opportunities for undergraduate anaesthesia.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Nov 2015
Overcoming barriers to the mobilisation of patients in an intensive care unit.
We conducted a quality improvement project aimed at increasing the frequency of mobilisation in our ICU. We designed a four-part quality improvement project comprising: an audit documenting the baseline frequency of mobilisation; a staff survey evaluating perceptions of the barriers to mobilisation; identification of barriers that were amenable to change and implementation of strategies to address these; and a follow-up audit to determine their effectiveness. The setting was a tertiary care, urban, public hospital ICU in South Australia. ⋯ Multivariable analyses showed that three out of four mobility outcomes did not significantly change between the baseline and follow-up audits, with a significant difference in favour of the baseline audit found for the fourth mobility outcome (maximum level of mobility). We concluded that implementing relatively simple measures to improve staff education, interdisciplinary communication and leadership regarding early progressive mobilisation was ineffective at improving mobility outcomes for patients in a large tertiary-level Australian ICU. Other strategies, such as changing sedation practices and/or increasing staffing, may be required to improve mobility outcomes of these patients.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Nov 2015
Necrotising soft tissue infections: the effect of hyperbaric oxygen on mortality.
In a single-centre, retrospective, case-controlled study of patients attending the Alfred Hospital in Prahran, Victoria, we assessed the effect of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) in reducing mortality or morbidity in patients with necrotising fasciitis (NF) over a 13-year period from 2002 to 2014. A total of three hundred and forty-one patients with NF were included in the study, of whom 275 received HBOT and 66 did not. The most commonly involved sites were the perineum (33.7%), lower limb (29.9%) and trunk (18.2%). ⋯ ICU support was required in 248 (72.7%) patients. Independent factors impacting on mortality included HBOT (odds ratio [OR] 0.42 [0.22 to 0.83], P=0.01), increased age (OR 1.06 [1.03 to 1.08], P=0.001) and immunosuppression (OR 2.6 [1.23 to 5.51], P=0.01). Mortality was linked to illness severity at presentation, however when adjusted for severity score and need for intensive care management, HBOT was associated with significant reduction in mortality.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Nov 2015
Case ReportsHereditary antithrombin III deficiency and neuraxial anaesthesia.
Antithrombin III (ATIII) deficiency offers unique challenges to the anaesthetist in the perioperative setting due to the inherent thrombophilia, the anticoagulant therapies instituted and replacement of the deficient intrinsic natural anticoagulant. A particular challenge is the use of intrathecal anaesthesia, which requires a safe level of coagulation at the time of subarachnoid puncture. ⋯ The patient sustained no thrombotic or bleeding events. Our experience suggests that ATIII deficiency does not preclude the use of regional anaesthetic techniques so long as there is timely referral to a multidisciplinary perioperative service for anticoagulant management and that ATIII concentrate is used to ensure safe levels of ATIII throughout the perioperative period.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Nov 2015
Editorial Biography Historical ArticleRod Westhorpe-covering a historical moment.