Anaesthesia and intensive care
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There is widespread variation as to the method of presentation of informed anaesthetic consent with little empirical data on the nature of communication and how much information is retained. At a dedicated anaesthesia pre-admission clinic, 149 patients undergoing elective surgery under general anaesthesia were both verbally informed and shown written information about four major and three minor anaesthesia risks. The major risks were death, pneumonia, heart attack and stroke. ⋯ On the day of scheduled surgery, retention of information about these anaesthetic risks was examined. Thirty-eight patients (26%) could not recall any anaesthesia risks, 55 patients (37%) could not recall any major risks and 126 patients (84%) could not recall any minor risks. Our findings indicate that patients should receive a second explanation on the day of surgery, even if informed consent was provided only two weeks earlier.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Mar 2013
ReviewInterventional neuroradiological procedures-a review for anaesthetists.
Interventional neuroradiology is a rapidly expanding field, and the complexity and duration of these procedures makes anaesthetic support essential to their success. Such has been the development in this area, that the American Heart Association has published a scientific statement on the indications for these procedures. ⋯ This article will cover the management of intracranial aneurysms, cerebral vasospasm following intracranial haemorrhage, intracranial and spinal arteriovenous malformations, idiopathic intracranial hypertension, carotid artery stenting, intra-arterial thrombolysis for stroke and endovascular treatment of intracranial atherosclerosis. Protection from ionising radiation and acute kidney injury are also discussed.
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Benefits and advantages of tracheostomy have been vigorously debated. There is a lack of consensus as to whether perceived clinical improvement is attributable to fundamental changes in respiratory dynamics. We compare the effect of tracheostomy versus endotracheal tube on dead space, airway resistance and other lung parameters in critically ill ventilated patients. ⋯ The average dead space of endotracheal versus tracheostomy tubes was 41±12.6% and 40±14.6%, respectively (P=0.75). The remaining 22 patients (92%) had no significant change in dead space, compliance or other respiratory parameters. This study shows that there is no significant difference in respiratory mechanics and dead space with a tracheostomy versus endotracheal tube.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Mar 2013
Simulation training for rare medications in the intensive care unit-a study with bivalirudin.
The purpose of this study was to assess whether simulation training can improve the clinician's ability to predict the effect of bivalirudin infusion. Six clinicians with experience using bivalirudin and six without experience (Groups Exp and NoExp) entered predictions for partial thromboplastin time while viewing a running display of clinical data obtained retrospectively from intensive care unit patients who had received bivalirudin infusion after cardiac surgery. All clinicians entered guesses for the same sequence of 30 patients. ⋯ The guessing-errors of Group NoExp were significantly higher than Group Exp in the first and second terciles, with no significant difference in the third tercile. Linear regression indicated a significantly steeper learning curve in Group NoExp than Exp. Brief simulation training using retrospective patient data improved the ability of inexperienced clinicians to predict the effect of bivalirudin as compared to experienced clinicians.