Anaesthesia and intensive care
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Jan 2017
Case ReportsThe expanding role of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation retrieval services in Australia.
Herein we detail the cases of three patients transferred on veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA ECMO) from a tertiary referral hospital to an ECMO centre. We highlight the benefits of such a transfer and offer this as a model of care for unwell patients likely to require a prolonged period of ECMO support.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Jan 2017
Prognosis of patients with rheumatic diseases admitted to intensive care.
Variable mortality rates have been reported for patients with rheumatic diseases admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU). Due to the absence of appropriate control groups in previous studies, it is not known whether the presence of a rheumatic disease constitutes a risk factor. Moreover, the accuracy of the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score for predicting outcome in this group of patients has been questioned. ⋯ There was no difference in the performance of the APACHE II score for predicting outcome in patients with rheumatic diseases and controls. This score, as well as a requirement for the use of inotropes or vasopressors, accurately predicted hospital mortality in the group of patients with rheumatic diseases. In conclusion, patients with a rheumatic condition admitted to intensive care do not do significantly worse than patients without such a disease.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Jan 2017
The addition of tick-boxes related to tobacco cessation improves smoking-related documentation in the anaesthesia chart.
The Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) 'Guidelines on Smoking as Related to the Perioperative Period (PS12)' recommends that anaesthetists should always ask about smoking, advise quitting and refer patients to their general practitioner (GP) or a telephone quit-line for quit support. In this study we evaluated the effect of adding tick-boxes for 'quit advice given' and 'referral to GP/Quitline' to anaesthesia charts of elective surgical patients to assess whether this intervention changed documentation of compliance with the ANZCA guideline. The anaesthesia charts of all smokers were reviewed for evidence of asking, advising and referring, over two three-month periods (n=999) separated by the intervention of placing a sticker to modify the preoperative charts of all elective patients which added tick-box prompts of advice and referral. ⋯ Evidence of advice to quit was 1.8% prior to, rising to 18.7% after, the intervention (P <0.001), while evidence of referral rose from 0.9% to 5.8%. There was negligible change in non-elective patients, who did not receive the intervention. The addition of tick-boxes improved the documentation of smoking cessation support, but as documented rates of quit support remained relatively low even after the intervention, tick-boxes alone cannot be relied upon to improve alignment of care with the ANZCA guidelines.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Jan 2017
Aetiology of preoperative anaemia in patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery-the challenge of pillar one of Patient Blood Management.
Preoperative anaemia is common in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Whilst there is a strong association with increased morbidity and mortality, it is currently unclear whether treatment of anaemia leads to patient benefit. This retrospective study aimed to determine the aetiology of preoperative anaemia in a cohort of patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery over two years at a tertiary hospital. ⋯ Time between assessment and surgery was as little as one day in a third of patients and in only 7% was it more than seven days. Our findings indicate that about one-third of our patients with preoperative anaemia had evidence of iron deficiency, a potentially reversible cause of anaemia. In addition, a significant number had either limited iron stores that may render them iron deficient by surgery, or a functional iron deficiency.
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The current trend to treat hypotension in critically ill patients is to place a greater emphasis on inotropic support and less on fluid resuscitation in order to limit the potential harm from fluid overload. This combination may trigger left ventricular outflow tract obstruction (LVOTO) in susceptible patients. Although LVOTO is classically described in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy it has been reported in other conditions including septic shock, apical ballooning syndrome, myocardial infarction, respiratory failure, and post valvular surgery. ⋯ Dynamic LVOTO should be considered in any hypotensive intensive care patient. Echocardiography is perhaps the best tool to assess LVOTO and its underlying pathophysiology in the critically ill. Detection of LVOTO is a relatively simple task using a combination of two-dimensional, M-mode and spectral Doppler imaging by an operator alert to the possible diagnosis.