Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Feb 2015
ReviewDeliberate practice for achieving and maintaining expertise in anesthesiology.
For the dedicated anesthesiologist, a high level of expertise is needed to deliver good care to patients and to provide excellent service to surgeons, anesthesia colleagues, and others. Expertise helps the anesthesiologist recover from difficult situations and generally makes the practice run more effectively. Expertise also contributes to quality of life through higher self-esteem and long-term career satisfaction. ⋯ Anesthesiology instruction with attending supervision provides all of the necessary components for deliberate practice, and it can be effective in anesthesia. Using deliberate practice in teaching requires organization in selecting training topics, effort in challenging students to excel, and skill in providing feedback. In this article, we discuss how educational programs can implement deliberate practice in anesthesiology training, review resources for instructors, and suggest how anesthesiologists can continue the practice after residency.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Feb 2015
The Incidence and Risk Factors for Perioperative Cardiac Arrest Observed in the National Anesthesia Clinical Outcomes Registry.
Cardiac arrest is a rare but important event in the operating room and postanesthesia care unit, when surgical patients are most intensively monitored. Several recent publications have reported the rate of cardiac arrest in surgical patients during the subsequent hospital stay but have not uniquely identified the immediate perioperative period. We hypothesized that cardiac arrest during this time (intraprocedure and postanesthesia care) would occur at a lower frequency than that described for inpatient hospital care in the available literature. ⋯ The National Anesthesia Clinical Outcomes Registry is an emerging resource for examination of perioperative and anesthesia-related outcomes. Cardiac arrest is less frequent in the periprocedural setting than later in the hospital course, with most arrests predictably occurring in patients with ASA physical status III-V. The finding of increased risk of mortality in male patients cannot be readily explained and should prompt future research attention.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Feb 2015
What can the national quality forum tell us about performance measurement in anesthesiology?
Anesthesiologists face increasing pressure to demonstrate the value of the care they provide, whether locally or nationally through public reporting and payor requirements. In this article, we describe the current state of performance measurement in anesthesia care at the national level and highlight gaps and opportunities in performance measurement for anesthesiologists. ⋯ Few NQF performance measures are specific to anesthesia practice, and none of these appears to demonstrate the value of anesthesia care or differentiate high-quality providers. To demonstrate their role in patient-centered, outcome-driven care, anesthesiologists may consider actively partnering in jointly attributable or team-based reporting. Future measures may incorporate surgical procedures not proportionally represented, as well as procedural and sedation care provided in nonoperating room settings.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Feb 2015
Review Meta Analysis Comparative StudyCrystalloids Versus Colloids: Exploring Differences in Fluid Requirements by Systematic Review and Meta-Regression.
Positive fluid balance has been associated with worse outcomes, and knowledge of differences in the amounts of different types of fluid needed to achieve the same end points may have important clinical implications. Large molecules persist longer in the blood vessels than smaller molecules, such that less IV colloid may be needed to achieve similar hemodynamic end points compared with crystalloid. Recent clinical data have, however, challenged this physiological concept, with investigators reporting lower-than-expected crystalloid/colloid ratios in various populations. ⋯ Greater fluid volumes are required to meet the same targets with crystalloids than with colloids, with an estimated ratio of 1.5 (1.36-1.65), but there is marked heterogeneity among studies. The crystalloid/colloid ratio seems to have decreased over the years, and differences in ratios are correlated with the concentration of albumin solutions; however, the main reasons behind the high heterogeneity among studies remain unclear.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Feb 2015
Propofol (Diprivan®) and Intralipid Exacerbate Insulin Resistance in Type-2 Diabetic Hearts by Impairing GLUT4 Trafficking.
The IV anesthetic, propofol, when administered as fat emulsion-based formulation (Diprivan) promotes insulin resistance, but the direct effects of propofol and its solvent, Intralipid, on cardiac insulin resistance are unknown. ⋯ Propofol and Intralipid promote insulin resistance predominantly in type-2 diabetic hearts.