Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Dec 2013
Airway management in patients with subglottic stenosis: experience at an academic institution.
We describe a pilot study investigating the airway techniques used in the anesthetic management of subglottic stenosis. We searched the electronic clinical information database of the University of Michigan Health System for cases of subglottic stenosis in patients undergoing surgery. ⋯ We detected no difference in outcome between individual techniques. This study suggests a larger prospective multicenter study is required to further investigate these outcomes in patients with subglottic stenosis.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Dec 2013
Comparative StudyPulse Wave Transit Time Measurements of Cardiac Output in Patients Undergoing Partial Hepatectomy: A Comparison of the esCCO System with Thermodilution.
Measuring cardiac output accurately during anesthesia is thought to be helpful for safely controlling hemodynamics. Several minimally invasive methods to measure cardiac output have been developed as alternatives to thermodilution with pulmonary artery catheterization. We evaluated the reliability of a novel pulse wave transit time method of cardiac output assessment to trend with thermodilution cardiac output in patients undergoing partial hepatectomy. ⋯ The pulse wave transit time method had good concordance but fairly wide limits of agreement with regard to trending in patients with changes in preload and systemic vascular resistance. There are potential inaccuracies when vasopressors are used to treat hypotension associated with decreased systemic vascular resistance. The study limitations are that the cardiac output data were collected in a nonblinded fashion, and an existing intraarterial catheter was used, although the system requires only routine, noninvasive cardiovascular monitors. This is a promising technique that currently has limitations and will require further improvements and clinical assessment.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Dec 2013
Airway exchange failure and complications with the use of the cook airway exchange catheter®: a single center cohort study of 1177 patients.
There are limited data on rates of failure and airway injury with the use of airway exchange catheters. We performed a single-center retrospective analysis of airway exchange catheters to determine the incidence and associated factors for tube exchange failure and airway injury. ⋯ Pneumothorax was noted after 1.5% of attempted tube exchanges. Difficult tube exchange was encountered in 6 of 8 patients with pneumothorax.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Dec 2013
How to Improve the Performance of Intraoperative Risk Models: An Example with Vital Signs Using the Surgical Apgar Score.
Computerized reviews of patient data promise to improve patient care through early and accurate identification of at-risk and well patients. The significance of sampling strategy for patient vital signs data is not known. In the instance of the surgical Apgar score (SAS), we hypothesized that larger sampling intervals would improve the specificity and overall predictive ability of this tool. ⋯ When vital signs data are recorded in compliance with American Society of Anesthesiologists' standards, the sampling strategy for vital signs significantly influences performance of the SAS. Computerized reviews of patient data are subject to the choice of sampling methods for vital signs and may have the potential to be optimized for safe, efficient patient care.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Dec 2013
Lack of utility of a decision support system to mitigate delays in admission from the operating room to the postanesthesia care unit.
When the phase I postanesthesia care unit (PACU) is at capacity, completed cases need to be held in the operating room (OR), causing a "PACU delay." Statistical methods based on historical data can optimize PACU staffing to achieve the least possible labor cost at a given service level. A decision support process to alert PACU charge nurses that the PACU is at or near maximum census might be effective in lessening the incidence of delays and reducing over-utilized OR time, but only if alerts are timely (i.e., neither too late nor too early to act upon) and the PACU slot can be cleared quickly. We evaluated the maximum potential benefit of such a system, using assumptions deliberately biased toward showing utility. ⋯ Despite multiple biases that favored effectiveness, the maximum potential benefit of a decision support system to mitigate PACU delays on the day on the surgery was below the 70% minimum threshold for utility of automated decision support messages, previously established via meta-analysis. Neither reduction in PACU delays nor reassigning promised PACU slots based on reducing over-utilized OR time were realized sufficiently to warrant further development of the system. Based on these results, the only evidence-based method of reducing PACU delays is to adjust PACU staffing and staff scheduling using computational algorithms to match the historical workload (e.g., as developed in 2001).