Anesthesiology
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Review Meta Analysis
Incidence of epidural hematoma, infection, and neurologic injury in obstetric patients with epidural analgesia/anesthesia.
Of the 4 million annual births in the United States, 2.4 million involve epidural analgesia. Serious adverse events are rare but are important in young women. Robust estimates for the risk of harm are not available. ⋯ A total of 1.37 million women received an epidural for childbirth, reported in 27 articles. Most information (85% of women) was in larger (> 10,000 women) studies published after 1990, with risk estimates as follows: epidural hematoma, 1 in 168,000; deep epidural infection, 1 in 145,000; persistent neurologic injury, 1 in 240,000; and transient neurologic injury, 1 in 6,700. Earlier and smaller studies produced significantly higher risk estimates for transient neurologic injury plus injury of unknown duration.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Value of debriefing during simulated crisis management: oral versus video-assisted oral feedback.
The debriefing process during simulation-based education has been poorly studied despite its educational importance. Videotape feedback is an adjunct that may enhance the impact of the debriefing and in turn maximize learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate the value of the debriefing process during simulation and to compare the educational efficacy of two types of feedback, oral feedback and videotape-assisted oral feedback, against control (no debriefing). ⋯ Exposure to a simulated crisis without constructive debriefing by instructors offers little benefit to trainees. The addition of video review did not offer any advantage over oral feedback alone. Valuable simulation training can therefore be achieved even when video technology is not available.
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A fatal case of viridans streptococcus meningitis is reported, which occurred as a complication of epidural anesthesia. One hundred seventy-nine reported cases of post-dural puncture meningitis are reviewed. Evidence suggests that most cases are probably caused by contamination of the puncture site by aerosolized mouth commensals from medical personnel, some are caused from contamination by skin bacteria, and, less frequently, other cases are caused directly or hematogenously by spread from an endogenous infectious site. Controversy exists regarding prevention, surveillance, incidence, and treatment of this serious complication.