Anesthesiology clinics
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Anesthesiology clinics · Dec 2008
Is it possible to measure and improve patient satisfaction with anesthesia?
Satisfaction cannot be considered as an objective indicator of the quality of anesthesia care, but it remains the best way to assess the outcome from the point of view of the patient. Patient satisfaction offers the opportunity for evaluating nontechnical aspects of medical care, in particular interpersonal relationships arising from specific episodes of care. ⋯ If improving patient satisfaction with anesthesia becomes one of the aims of a health service, anesthetists have to consider that when patients have an improved anesthesia experience, their expectations are exceeded, which in turn increases the expectations for subsequent anesthetics. A continuous quality improvement process is needed to maintain patient satisfaction at the highest level.
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Anesthesiology clinics · Dec 2008
Making it work: setting up a regional anesthesia program that provides value.
Regional anesthesia offers many benefits for the patient, surgery center, anesthesiology practice, and hospital. Unfortunately, there are no evidence-based guidelines to follow when starting a new service aimed at providing peripheral nerve blocks. ⋯ A regional anesthesia service may shorten postanesthesia recovery time in ambulatory surgery and duration of hospital admission for some surgeries. A successful regional anesthesia service promotes effective communication among all members of the perioperative team.
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Anesthesiology clinics · Sep 2008
ReviewMinimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass and off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery: anesthetic considerations.
Many new surgical technologies are being developed, with the overall aim of improving outcomes. One common feature of many new technologies is that they offer a safer approach than previous techniques; one of the greatest forces for change over the last 30 years is risk reduction. ⋯ Beating heart techniques, whether minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass (MIDCAB), off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery (OPCAB), or in other forms, such as percutaneous valve replacement, are likely to dramatically increase over the next decade. What role OPCAB and MIDCAB techniques will play in this new era is anyone's guess.
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Hepatic injury in cardiac surgery is a rare complication but is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. A high index of suspicion postoperatively will lead to earlier treatment directed at eliminating or minimizing ongoing hepatic injury while preventing additional metabolic stress from ischemia, hemorrhage, or sepsis. ⋯ Although acute kidney injury (as defined by the Risk, Injury, Failure, Loss, End-stage criteria) has become accepted, it does not address pathogenesis and bears little relevance to cardiac surgery. Although acute renal failure requiring renal replacement therapy after cardiac surgery is rare, it has a devastating impact on morbidity and mortality, and further studies on protective strategies are essential.
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Anesthesiologists increasingly encounter patients who have a spectrum of heart failure ranging from stable chronic heart failure to acute heart failure to cardiogenic shock. Improved medical therapy has increased the survival of patients who have chronic heart failure but not of patients who have acute heart failure. New surgical techniques and mechanical devices may offer alternatives to certain patients who have refractory heart failure This article provides an overview of established and newer pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic therapies and surgical interventions to manage patients who have heart failure, including the perioperative management of heart transplantation and ventricular assist devices.