Revista española de anestesiología y reanimación
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The process of quality control and auditing of anesthesiology allows us to evaluate care given by a service and solve problems that are detected. Quality control is a basic element of care giving and is only secondarily an area of academic research; it is therefore a meaningless effort if the information does not serve to improve departmental procedures. Quality assurance procedures assume certain infrastructural requirements and an initial period of implementation and adjustment. The main objectives of quality control are the reduction of morbidity and mortality due to anesthesia, assurance of the availability and proper management of resources and, finally, the well-being and safety of the patient.
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Rev Esp Anestesiol Reanim · Mar 1995
Case Reports[Postoperative lesions of the peripheral nerves. 8 years' analysis].
Damage to a plexus or peripheral nerve is a rare and avoidable complication of surgical anesthesia. We reviewed 2,750 case histories of patients who underwent surgery between 1985 and 1992, finding 6 cases of nerve lesions presenting postoperatively. ⋯ Our data are important given the difficulty of studying the incidence of such cases due to patient dispersion and the loss of records of possible occurrences. The mechanisms by which lesions are produced are sometimes difficult to pinpoint but all are generally preventable.
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The rationalization of health care spending has high priority in these times of economic difficulty. Anesthesiologists can contribute to more efficient use of resources and therefore must be well aware of the cost of the products they use. This study aims to evaluate their knowledge of the cost of commonly used products. ⋯ The respondents were 100% correct about 2 of the disposable items studied but did not give estimates within 50% of real cost for any of the remaining 7 items. Neither position in the hierarchy nor years of experience was related to degree of correctness in pricing the products studied. Awareness of the prices of commonly used products, particularly of disposable material, was low in the population of anesthesiologists studied.
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Rev Esp Anestesiol Reanim · Mar 1995
Clinical Trial[Reduction of the need for blood derivatives in liver transplantation using aprotinin].
To evaluate the efficacy of aprotinin in reducing the need for blood products in orthotopic liver transplantation. ⋯ Prophylactic use of aprotinin during surgery has a beneficial effect on hemostatic mechanisms, reducing the need for blood products. A reduction in fibrinolysis seems to contribute to this effect.