British journal of anaesthesia
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
Preoperative intravenous iron before cardiac surgery: a prospective multicentre feasibility study.
Preoperative anaemia affects one third of patients undergoing cardiac surgery and is associated with increased mortality and morbidity. Although it is recommended that perioperative teams should identify and treat patients with preoperative anaemia before surgery, introducing new treatment protocols can be challenging in surgical pathways. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of introducing a preoperative intravenous iron service as a national initiative in cardiac surgery. ⋯ The development of an intravenous iron pathway is feasible but appears limited to selected high-risk cardiac patients in routine NHS practise. Although intravenous iron increased [Hb], there is a need for an appropriately powered clinical trial to assess the clinical effect of intravenous iron on patient-centred outcomes.
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Bedside lung volume measurement could personalise ventilation and reduce driving pressure in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). We investigated a modified gas-dilution method, the inspired sinewave technique (IST), to measure the effective lung volume (ELV) in pigs with uninjured lungs and in an ARDS model. ⋯ IST provides a repeatable measure of absolute ELV and shows minimal bias when tracking PEEP-induced changes in lung volume compared with CT in a saline-lavage model of ARDS.
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Recent studies suggest that female researchers are less visible on social media. The objective of this observational work was to compare the use of professional social networks between male and female anaesthesia researchers. ⋯ In anaesthesia, the visibility of female researchers on the social network dedicated to scientific research is lower than that of male researchers.
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Women face gender-based challenges in their medical education and career. Inequitable access to procedural training, a confidence gap, and professional identity deficit have been shown. We made a gender comparison of procedural case volume, confidence for independent practice, perceived gender and ethnic bias, and professional identity in Australasian anaesthesia trainees. ⋯ A discrepancy exists between the number of procedures performed by male and female anaesthesia trainees in Australia and New Zealand. Relative male overconfidence may be a major contributing factor to the gender confidence gap.