Journal of cardiothoracic and vascular anesthesia
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J. Cardiothorac. Vasc. Anesth. · Nov 2024
Self-Directed Virtual Reality-Based Training versus Traditional Physician-Led Teaching for Point-of-Care Cardiac Ultrasound: A Randomized Controlled Study.
To assess the learning efficacy of self-directed virtual reality ultrasound simulators as an alternative to traditional physician-led teaching for cardiac point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) training. ⋯ Our study demonstrates that at 1 month post-training, self-directed VR training was noninferior to PL training. Although differences observed were not significant, there were trends to suggest enhanced retention of knowledge and skills with VR learning.
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J. Cardiothorac. Vasc. Anesth. · Nov 2024
Norepinephrine Salt Formulations and Risk of Therapeutic Error: Results of a National Survey.
Norepinephrine is available commercially in solution containing its salt (eg, tartrate), but only the base form (ie, norepinephrine base) is active pharmacologically. Unfortunately, the outer label of drug packages frequently reports the dosage of norepinephrine as a salt, which can lead potentially to therapeutic errors when prescribing norepinephrine. We performed a survey to assess the level of awareness of this issue. ⋯ There is significant variability in dosage management of norepinephrine across different hospital units, as well as a lack of knowledge regarding the salt-to-base ratio. Scientific publications (eg, guidelines) should specify whether they are referring to the base or salt form of norepinephrine. The adoption of different labeling and national standards for dilution may decrease the risk of therapeutic errors.