Anaesthesia
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Observational Study
The effects of an aviation-style computerised pre-induction anaesthesia checklist on pre-anaesthetic set-up and non-routine events.
There is ever greater interest in mitigating medical errors, particularly through cognitive aids and checklist-system long-used in the aviation industry.
Jelacic and team instituted a computerised pre-induction checklist, using an observational before-and-after study design across 1,570 cases. This is the first study of a computerised anaesthesia checklist in a real clinical environment.
They found an absolute risk reduction of almost 4% of failure-to-perform critical pre-induction steps, along with reduction in non-routine events and several examples of pre-induction mistake identification through checklist use.
Although the researchers claim the results “strongly argue for the routine use of a pre-induction anaesthesia checklist” this overstates the case a little. This study, like many similar, struggles with confounder effects on anaesthesia vigilance that may explain some of the results, particularly as arising from observational, non-randomised, non-blinded research.
Be careful
The challenge for cognitive aid research is that commonly it must use surrogate markers (workflow step failure; behavioural deviations; efficiency; time spent on task etc.) rather than the safety outcomes that actually matter to patients: death and injury.
There is no easy way around this other than large multi-center studies focusing on outcomes, such as the WHO surgical safety checklist study – which even then, has not escaped criticism!
Thinking deeper...
There will continue to be tension between those pro-checklist and those against. The irony is that both camps share a similar rationale for their position: the advocates for routine checklists point to the safety benefits of reducing cognitive load, whereas those opposing argue that enforced use is anti-individual and itself adds additional task and cognitive burden for clinicians.
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Multicenter Study
A survey of antenatal and peripartum provision of information on analgesia and anaesthesia.
Why is this relevant?
Anaesthetists and anesthesiologists have long worried about the recall of labouring women when presented with risk-benefit discussions prior to epidural analgesia or receiving anaesthesia for cesarean section.
This UK survey of over 900 women across 28 Greater London hospitals explored recall of this antenatal and intrapartum information, along with maternal satisfaction.
What did they find?
There was very little recall of receiving either thorough labour analgesia information (9%) or anaesthesia for CS (12%) provided during the antenatal period.
During the interpartum period, fewer than two-thirds (62%) recalled receiving thorough information during labour before insertion, and less than one-third (28%) before Caesarean section anaesthesia.
13% of women did not recall receiving any information before epidural insertion.
These are concerning findings in a modern era where patient autonomy and informed consent are prioritised, and more so where informed decision making may contribute to a positive birth experience.
Interestingly, verbal information appeared best recalled (OR 5.9 to 20.7 across different categories), although this is counter to past studies showing superiority of written information.
Be clear
Because the 28 hospitals contributing to the survey had large practice differences in how antenatal anaesthetic information was provided, it is difficult to determine whether the provision of information or recall itself is the problem.
Take-home...
Regardless of the cause, a large proportion of pregnant women did not recall being adequately informed before epidural analgesia or caesarean anaesthesia. This needs to be improved.
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The new Score for Prediction Of Postoperative Respiratory Complications (SPORC-2) more reliably predicts the need for early post-operative re-intubation.
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Unplanned intensive care admission is a devastating complication of lung resection and is associated with significantly increased mortality. We carried out a two-year retrospective national multicentre cohort study to investigate the influence of anaesthetic and analgesic technique on the need for unplanned postoperative intensive care admission. All patients undergoing lung resection surgery in 16 thoracic surgical centres in the UK in the calendar years 2013 and 2014 were included. ⋯ Patients receiving total intravenous anaesthesia (OR 0.50 (95%CI 0.34-0.70)), and patients receiving epidural analgesia (OR 0.56 (95%CI 0.41-0.78)) were less likely to have an unplanned admission to intensive care after thoracic surgery. This large retrospective study suggests a significant effect of both anaesthetic and analgesic technique on outcome in patients undergoing lung resection. We must emphasise that the observed association does not directly imply causation, and suggest that well-conducted, large-scale randomised controlled trials are required to address these fundamental questions.
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Multicenter Study
The association between platelet dysfunction and adverse outcomes in cardiac surgical patients.
Haemostatic activation during cardiopulmonary bypass is associated with prothrombotic complications. Although it is not possible to detect and quantify haemostatic activation directly, platelet dysfunction, as measured with point-of-care-assays, may be a useful surrogate. In this study, we assessed the association between cardiopulmonary bypass-associated platelet dysfunction and adverse outcomes in 3010 cardiac surgical patients. ⋯ The median (IQR [range]) percentage platelet dysfunction was less for those without the outcome as compared with those with the outcome; 14% (8-28% [1-99%]) vs. 19% (11-45% [2-98%]), p < 0.001. After risk adjustment, platelet dysfunction was independently associated with the composite outcome (p < 0.001), such that for each 1% increase in platelet dysfunction there was an approximately 1% increase in the composite outcome (OR 1.012; 95%CI 1.006-1.018). This exploratory study suggests that cardiopulmonary bypass-associated platelet dysfunction has prognostic value and may be a useful clinical measure of haemostatic activation in cardiac surgery.