Anaesthesia
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Questionnaires were distributed to all 213 consultant anaesthetists in the North-West region of the UK with a response rate of 68%. These questionnaires were designed to assess the hygienic precautions taken to reduce the potential for transmission of infectious agents to and from the patients under their care. Face masks and gloves were always used by 35.2% and 14.5%, respectively, while only 36.4% washed their hands between cases. ⋯ Bacterial filters were used by 17% and changed after each case by 7.2%. On a scale of 0-10 (10 = significant) anaesthetists rated their potential for transmitting or contributing to patient infection as a median of 3 (interquartile range: 2-6). The results of this study show that, although anaesthetists are well aware of proper hygienic practices, their performance falls short of accepted recommendations.
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Two-hundred and forty incidents of vomiting/regurgitation and aspiration were reported to the Anaesthetic Incident Monitoring Study database consisting of 5000 reports. Of these, 133 cases of aspiration were recorded. Passive regurgitation occurred three times more commonly than active vomiting. ⋯ Aspiration remains an important anaesthetic-related morbidity. The application of simple guidelines may have prevented the incident in 60% of all cases of aspiration. Ensuring airway security may be as important as chemoprophylaxis in its prevention.