Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Aug 1993
Performance of pediatric resuscitation bags assessed with an infant lung simulator.
Many pediatric self-inflating bags are equipped with pressure relief (pop-off) valves to prevent barotrauma. We participated in a resuscitation in which a valve malfunction briefly caused inadequate ventilation. The pop-off valve was seated in an intermediate position between open and closed settings. ⋯ Inflation of all DMR (disposable) and PMR (nondisposable) bags in the intermediate valve position produced marked air leakage through the valve, with delivered tidal volumes of only 92 +/- 13 mL (DMR) for TI < 0.5 s, and unrecordable tidal volumes (< 50 mL) for both DMR and PMR self-inflating bags for TI > 0.6 s. A wide range of delivered tidal volumes was observed among all bags examined. We conclude that both DMR and PMR bags can be placed inadvertently in an intermediate valve position that can produce disastrous hypoventilation during resuscitation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Aug 1993
Parental knowledge and attitudes toward discussing the risk of death from anesthesia.
There is considerable debate as to the extent of disclosure of risks when obtaining informed consent for anesthesia, especially when discussing with parents the rare risk of death of healthy children about to undergo elective, outpatient surgery. In Part I, we attempted to determine parents' knowledge about the risks of anesthesia as well as their thoughts toward either hearing, or not hearing, about the risk of death. In the first part of our study, 115 parents completed questionnaires before speaking with the anesthesiologist. ⋯ Seventy-five (68%) parents knew that this risk was "extremely rare," 21 (19%) believed that it occurs "once in a while," and 14 (13%) thought there was "no chance." Eighty-two (74%) parents wanted to know "all possible risks," 26 (24%) wanted to know only "those that are likely to occur," and 3 (2%) wanted to know only about those that would "result in significant injury." Mothers were more likely to want to hear all possible risks, whereas fathers were more likely to want to know only about those that are likely to occur (P = 0.001). Otherwise, responses were not influenced by the sex of the parents, the age of the child, or whether the child or any siblings had had surgery in the past. In Part II, a separate group of 121 parents were surveyed after participating in the preanesthetic discussion with the anesthesiologist.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)