British journal of anaesthesia
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Excellent anaesthetists were identified by anaesthesia nurses as being:
- Organised & focused: structured, responsible, and focused approach to work tasks.
- Good communicators: clear and informative, briefing of team about the plan before induction.
- Respectful of complexity: humble to the complexity of anaesthesia, admitting own fallibility.
- Patient-centred: personal contact with the patient before induction.
- Good situational awareness: fluent in practical work without losing overview.
- Calm and clear in critical situations, being able to change to a strong leading style.
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An organizational approach is proposed as an immediate solution for improving postoperative pain (POP) management. The aim was to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of a quality management system (QMS), based on procedure-specific, multimodal analgesic protocols, modified to meet the individual patients' requirements. ⋯ The implementation of QMS allowed the reduction in POP intensity with a simultaneous decrease in analgesia-related side-effects. This has led to an increased quality of life and patient satisfaction.
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Increased left ventricular mass (LVM) is a well-recognized predictor of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in epidemiological studies, but its impact on mortality after cardiac surgery is poorly defined. We hypothesized that patients with increased LVM index (LVMI) were more likely to have greater 30 day and 1 yr mortality. ⋯ Increased LVMI, but not LV systolic function as measured by the fractional area of contraction (FAC) was identified as a strong independent predictor of perioperative mortality after adult cardiac surgery. The relationship between LVMI and risk of 30 day mortality was nearly linear. Furthermore, decreased FAC, and not LVMI, was a strong independent predictor of 1 yr mortality.