International journal of obstetric anesthesia
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Int J Obstet Anesth · Aug 2023
Impact of conflict and pandemic on women's health in Latin America: implementation to improve equity in the provision and access to safe obstetric anesthesia.
Latin America is one of the regions with the most significant inequalities in women's health as a result of factors such as social disparity, lack of work opportunities, unemployment, violence, and corruption. Adding a health crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic to these elements created a perfect storm that perpetuated extreme inequalities. ⋯ Several initiatives to allow better access and to provide safe anesthesia to pregnant patients have been taken in the region to improve obstetric patient care during the pandemic and beyond. Education has been pivotal and one of the most essential tools in bridging the gap in inequalities between men and women.
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Int J Obstet Anesth · Aug 2023
The need for maternal critical care education, point-of-care ultrasound (PoCUS) and critical care echocardiography in obstetric anesthesiologists training.
Globally, the increase in medically complex obstetric patients is challenging the educational approach and clinical management of critically ill obstetric patients. This increase in medical complexity calls into question the educational paradigm in which future physicians are trained. Obstetric anesthesiologists, physician experts in the perio-perative planning and management of complex obstetric patients, represent an essential workforce in the strategies to address maternal mortality. ⋯ Therefore, the development of maternal critical care models designed to prepare obstetric anesthesiologists for the clinical challenges of a medically complex patient are warranted. Key critical care topics such as advanced ultrasonography, with the inclusion of quantitative echocardiographic assessments into obstetric anesthesiology educational curricula, will serve to better prepare physicians for the realities of an increasingly complex pregnant patient population, and further reinforce the critical care infrastructure detailed in the Levels of Maternal Care consensus. Despite an increasingly complex obstetric patient population, heterogeneity of maternal critical care practices exists across the globe, warranting standardization and further development of proposed curricula.