Journal of clinical anesthesia
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Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) use continues to expand to include extracardiac applications. However, there is limited research investigating the use of TEE as a tool to confirm the position of the epidural catheter. This prospective observational study aimed to evaluate whether TEE could be used to visualize the anatomy of the thoracic spinal canal in pediatrics. A subsequent prospective case series was conducted to evaluate whether TEE could be used to assist in the placement of epidural catheters in pediatric surgical patients. ⋯ This observational study demonstrated the successful visualization of the thoracic spinal cord at virtually every level in pediatric patients. A subsequent case series demonstrated that TEE could be used to successfully confirm the position of the epidural catheter in the targeted thoracic spinal segment for pediatric surgical patients.
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The American Board of Anesthesiology's Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), as a component of its initial certification process, had been administered in-person in a dedicated assessment center since its launch in 2018 until March 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a virtual format of the exam was piloted in December 2020 and was administered in 2021. This study aimed to compare candidate performance, examiner grading severity, and scenario difficulty between these two formats of the OSCE. ⋯ Our retrospective analyses of first-time OSCEs found comparable candidate performance and examiner grading severity between the in-person and virtual formats, despite the virtual scenarios being more difficult than the in-person scenarios. These results provided assurance that the virtual OSCE functioned reasonably well in a high-stakes setting.
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This study evaluated whether there were improvements in the number of departmental National Institutes of Health (NIH) training grants and the academic productivity of departmental chairs in terms of NIH research funding and PubMed-cited publications when compared to chairs of the same departments in 2006. ⋯ When compared to 2006, department of anesthesiology chairs had more publications in 2021; however, NIH funding rates remained unchanged. The specialty had 19% female chairs, and those chairs had fewer publications than their male counterparts, though sex differences were attenuated using metrics that account for disparities in career length.