The Official Journal of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation Oct 2017 By Aalok Agarwala, MD, MBA, and Meghan Lane-Fall, MD, MSHP We submit that the preponderance of published literature suggests that perioperative handoffs are associated with patient harm, and that this harm may be mitigated by handoff standardization. However, many questions remain about the optimal […]

It’s difficult to talk about pain control these days without mentioning the opioid epidemic. Despite the dramatic rise in opioid prescriptions over the last decade, pain scores and patient satisfaction have remained the same. Opioid-related deaths, on the other hand, have quadrupled in the United States. According to Karim Ladha, MD, MSc, from the Department […]

AUTHORS: Oh, Tak Kyu MD et al Anesthesia & Analgesia: July 2017 – Volume 125 – Issue 1 – p 156–161 BACKGROUND: Opioid analgesics decrease the minimum alveolar concentration of inhalation agents during the acute phase response. However, the effect of chronic opioid exposure on minimum alveolar concentration of inhalation agents remains unknown. This study aimed to […]

AUTHORS: Miles, Lachlan F. MBBS Anesthesia & Analgesia: June 2017 BACKGROUND: BACKGROUND:Regional patterns of practice in cardiopulmonary bypass remain poorly understood with conflicting evidence regarding the best choices in pump priming preferences with respect to colloid and crystalloid and different types of fluid within these categories. In light of the variation in the literature, we hypothesized […]

Author: Emil Engels, MD, MBA, CPC MACRA Madness: The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, or MACRA, shifts the Medicare payment base from volume to value. This landmark legislation aims to move Medicare from fee-for-service to a system that rewards quality and low cost. As recently as the summer of 2016, 50% of […]

AUTHORS: Dunham, Alexandra M. MD et al Anesthesia & Analgesia: July 2017 – Volume 125 – Issue 1 – p 38–43 BACKGROUND: Both patient characteristics and intraoperative factors have been associated with a higher risk of stroke after cardiac surgery. We hypothesized that poor systemic oxygenation in the perioperative period is associated with increased risk of stroke […]

AUTHORS: Melton, M. Stephen MD et al Anesthesia & Analgesia: July 2017 – Volume 125 – Issue 1 – p 313–319 BACKGROUND: The effect of interscalene block (ISB) on pulmonary function of obese participants has not been investigated. The goal of this study is to assess the association of obesity (body mass index [BMI] >29 kg/m2 vs BMI […]

A pocket-sized ultrasound device for spinal anesthesia guidance accurately predicts Tuohy needle depth to epidural space. In addition, using the epidural insertion point identified by the hand-held device was associated with high first-pass success and minimal needle redirections. “This preliminary feasibility study in laboring parturients showed that the hand-held ultrasound [device] accurately predicted Tuohy needle […]

Last month, the Japanese Society of Anesthesiologists permanently banned Yuhji Saitoh of the Yachiyo Medical Center and Tokyo Women’s Medical University for fraud and data manipulation. Saitoh was a frequent co-author of papers with Yoshitaka Fujii, an infamous fraudster within the anesthesia community. “An editorial in anesthesiology-related journal ‘Anaesthesia’ outlining the alleged fraud cited numerous publications where […]

Report Provides Hospitals with In-depth Rationale and Evidence for Standards Every day, 91 Americans die from an opioid overdose, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. As part of a national effort to address the opioid crisis, The Joint Commission is implementing new and revised pain assessment and management standards, effective January […]