Acta anaesthesiologica Scandinavica
-
Acta Anaesthesiol Scand · Nov 2018
ReviewThe role of prehabilitation in frail surgical patients: A systematic review.
A useful review of the role of rehabilitation in frail patients by Milder, Pillinger and Kam.
- They note that there is no gold standard to measure frailty, although there are many attempts to reliably identify and measure frailty across its many domains.
Nonetheless frailty is strongly associated with perioperative morbidity and mortality.
One proposed indicator of physical frailty is the presence of three of Fried's five factors: unintentional weight loss; grip strength weakness; exhaustion; slow walking speed; and low physical activity.
Frailty is "...a multidimensional state of reduced physiological reserve, resulting in increased vulnerability to stressors, decreased resilience, and loss of adaptive capacity."
Prehabilitation aims to increase physiological reserve through pre-operative intervention, including but not limited to exercise, nutrition and inspiratory muscle training.
Final word: although attractive, prehab has not yet been shown to improve outcomes in frail patients, though this is likely due to the absence of high quality studies.
summary -
Acta Anaesthesiol Scand · Nov 2018
Applying the human factors analysis and classification system to critical incident reports in anaesthesiology.
The Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) was developed as a practical taxonomy to investigate and analyse the human contribution to accidents and incidents. Based on Reason's "Swiss Cheese Model", it considers individual, environmental, leadership and organizational contributing factors in four hierarchical levels. The aim of this study was to assess the applicability of a modified HFACS taxonomy to incident reports from a large, anonymous critical incident database with the goal of gaining valuable insight into underlying, more systemic conditions and recurring schemes that might add important information for future incident avoidance. ⋯ We applied the HFACS taxonomy to the analysis of CIRS reports in anaesthesiology. This constitutes a structured approach that, especially when applied to a large data set, might help guide future mitigation and intervention strategies to reduce critical incidents and improve patient safety. Improved, more structured reporting templates could further optimize systematic analysis.
-
Acta Anaesthesiol Scand · Nov 2018
Randomized Controlled TrialPressure measurement in the upper esophagus during cricoid pressure: A high-resolution solid-state manometry study.
The use of cricoid pressure is controversial, and its ability to occlude the esophagus has been questioned. In this study, high-resolution solid-state manometry was used to analyze pressure changes in the upper esophagus from cricoid pressure during modified rapid sequence induction. This is a secondary analysis of data from a previous study. ⋯ This study using high-resolution solid-state manometry under clinically relevant conditions shows that 30 N cricoid pressure generates high pressure in the area of the UES, far exceeding the levels previously considered necessary to prevent regurgitation. Additional studies are needed to clarify the effectiveness of cricoid pressure in preventing passive regurgitation before it is rejected as a part of rapid sequence induction.