European journal of cardio-thoracic surgery : official journal of the European Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery
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Eur J Cardiothorac Surg · May 2012
Practice GuidelineEACTS guidelines for the use of patient safety checklists.
The Safety Checklist concept has been an integral part of many industries that face high-complexity tasks for many decades and in industries such as aviation and engineering checklists have evolved from their very inception. Investigations of the causes of surgical deaths around the world have repeatedly pointed to medical errors that could be prevented as an important cause of death and disability. As a result, the World Health Organisation developed and evaluated a three-stage surgical checklist in 2007 demonstrating that complications were significantly reduced, including surgical infection rates and even mortality. ⋯ A key factor in the successful implementation of a surgical checklist is engagement of the staff implementing the checklist. In surgical specialties such as our own it was quickly seen that there were many important omissions in the generic checklist that did not cover issues particular to our specialty, and thus the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery embarked on a process to create a version of the checklist that might be more appropriate and specific to cardiothoracic surgery, including checks on preparations for excessive bleeding, perfusion arrangements and ICU preparations, for example. The guideline presented here summarizes the evidence for the surgical checklist and also goes through in detail the changes recommended for our specialty.
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Eur J Cardiothorac Surg · May 2012
Clinical TrialMultimodal analgesic treatment in video-assisted thoracic surgery lobectomy using an intraoperative intercostal catheter.
No golden standard for analgesia in video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) lobectomy exists. A simple multimodal approach using an intercostal catheter (ICC) may be of benefit since acute post-operative pain following VATS lobectomy primarily originates from the chest drain area. ⋯ Acute pain after VATS lobectomy may be adequately controlled using a multimodal non-opioid regime including PVB and an ICC. The low pain scores and reduced time used inserting the ICC may present an alternative to continuous epidural analgesia or conventional PVB.
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Eur J Cardiothorac Surg · May 2012
Case ReportsValve-sparing replacement of the ascending aorta and aortic arch in a child with Loeys-Dietz syndrome.
We describe a successful surgical treatment in a 2.5-year old boy with Loeys-Dietz syndrome, in whom we performed aortic arch and ascending aorta replacement with a valve-sparing operation (VSO) of the aortic root because of significant aortic insufficiency and dilation of the aortic root. We believe that VSO is ideal for treating young patients with aortic root aneurysm with normal or minimally diseased aortic cusps to avoid the disadvantages of prosthetic valve replacements.