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Showing results for tags 'Anaesthesia'.
Found 146 results
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News Article
Lego builds anaesthesia skills according to new study
Clive Flashman posted a news article in News
Lego could be used as a practical tool to train doctors in anesthetic skills according to new research that has shown a simple task using the building bricks can help improve technical skills—a finding that could improve medical training and patient safety. Scientists from the University of Nottingham's School of Psychology and School of Medicine developed a task where people copied shapes using bricks that they could see in a mirror. They found this simple training improved student performance in an ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia task. The results of the study have been published in British Journal of Anesthesia Read the full article here -
Content ArticleBetween 30 June - 05 July 2020, the College conducted a survey to assess its members' views on the current preparedness to restart planned services.
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Content Article
Bulletin: Royal College of Anaesthetists (July 2020)
Claire Cox posted an article in Coronavirus (COVID-19)
In this edition of the Royal College of Anaesthetists bulletin, articles include: psychological consequences of COVID-19 a shift in incident reporting sleep and exhaustion. -
Content ArticleIn 2008, the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) issued a Rapid Response Report concerning problems with infusions and sampling from arterial lines. The risk of blood sample contamination from glucose‐containing arterial line infusions was highlighted and changes in arterial line management were recommended. Despite this guidance, errors with arterial line infusions remain common. Gupta and Cook report a case of severe hypoglycaemia and neuroglycopenia caused by glucose contamination of arterial line blood samples. This case occurred despite the implementation of the practice changes recommended in the 2008 NPSA alert. They report an analysis of the factors contributing to this incident using the Yorkshire Contributory Factors Framework. They discuss the nature of the errors that occurred and list the consequent changes in practice implemented in their unit to prevent recurrence of this incident, which go well beyond those recommended by the NPSA in 2008.
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Content ArticleThe UK NHS has risen to the challenge posed by COVID-19 through Herculean efforts to expand capacity. This has included doubling or trebling intensive care (ICU) capacity within hospitals, augmenting this with Nightingale Hospitals, cancelling all non-emergency surgery and redeploying staff and equipment to focus on a single disease. At the same time, government and population efforts have – through social distancing then lockdown – successfully flattened the epidemic curve and so reduced demand. Together, these actions have enabled treatment of all those needing hospital care for COVID-19 and avoided the unfettered increase in mortality that would have accompanied an overwhelmed healthcare service. However, this has been achieved ‘by the skin of our teeth’ and until very recently, the threat of insufficient ICU beds ventilators, and the need for triage were all anticipated: a few hospitals were overcome by the surge of critically ill patents. Now, political and social thoughts and actions are turning to loosening lockdown and determining what ‘post-pandemic normality’ will look like. In this Editorial, William Harrop‑Griffiths and Tim Cook discuss the prospects and challenges of ‘planned surgery’ – both time-critical and wholly elective procedures.
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Content ArticleThe COVID‐19 pandemic has led to the manufacturing of novel devices to protect clinicians from the risk of transmission, including the aerosol box for use in intubation. The authors of this paper, published in Anaesthesia, evaluated the impact of two aerosol boxes (an early‐generation box and a latest‐generation box) on intubations in patients with severe COVID‐19 with an in‐situ simulation crossover study.
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Content ArticleThis leaflet explains what sedation is, how it works and when you may need it. It also explains the benefits and risks of using sedation and what it might feel like. Importantly, it tells you what you will need to plan for your care after sedation. It has been written by patients, patient representatives and anaesthetists, working together.
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Content Article
British Dental Association: Conscious sedation (November 2011)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Dentist
This guidance from the British Dental Association provides information to help support dental practitioners and the wider dental team in the safe use of conscious sedation techniques. -
Content ArticleThe report defines the standards for the provision of conscious sedation in the delivery of dental care.
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Content Article
Conscious sedation in dentistry (June 2017)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Dentist
This Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme guidance aims to promote good clinical practice through recommendations for the safe and effective provision of conscious sedation for dental care. -
Content Article
CQC. Dental mythbuster: Safe and effective conscious sedation
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Dentist
Conscious sedation can help a patient undergo dental treatment. There are several reasons why they may need sedation – anxiety, medical needs or complex treatment. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) outlines the regulations and standards of conscious sedation. -
Content Article
What Is conscious sedation? (14 September 2018)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Patient management
Conscious sedation helps reduce anxiety, discomfort, and pain during certain procedures. This is accomplished with medications and (sometimes) local anesthesia to induce relaxation. Conscious sedation is commonly used in dentistry for people who feel anxious or panicked during complex procedures like fillings, root canals, or routine cleanings. It’s also often used during endoscopies and minor surgical procedures to relax patients and minimise discomfort. Find out more about the procedure, the drugs used and the side effects. -
Content ArticleThe safe management of a patient’s airway is one of the most challenging and complex tasks undertaken by a health professional - complications can result in devastating outcomes. Develop safe airway management strategies for your patients. This FREE course by University College London Hospital NHS Trust, will provide answers to your key questions and help you develop strategies to improve patient safety in your area of practice, discussing safe airway management in patient groups and multidisciplinary clinical settings. This course has been updated with the latest guidance on airway management in patients with COVID-19 and relevant personal protective equipment.
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Content ArticleResilience in the context of anaesthesia and intensive care medicine is the ability to manage the breadth, depth, intensity and chronicity of the demands of the work. The concept of resilience is often misunderstood: it is a dynamic, contextual process that goes beyond the narrow conceptions of individual ‘toughness’ that it can be reduced to. Resilience is important for those working in anaesthesia and intensive care medicine, and indeed staff throughout healthcare, as it is inevitable that difficult cases and situations will be encountered during our working lives. In addition, the way in which we respond to these events is critical to our own welfare and competence at work.
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Content ArticleThe objective of this investigation was to understand the context of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning under general anaesthetic and how care may be reasonably adjusted for patients with autism or learning disabilities. The ‘reference event’ was Alice, a teenage girl who had autism. Sadly, Alice died following her MRI scan under general anaesthetic. The findings and conclusions of this investigation may be applicable to other non-invasive procedures carried out on patients who are under general anaesthetic.
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Content Article
Brighton Anaesthesia FFP3 Donning & Doffing
Claire Cox posted an article in Good practice and useful resources
Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trusts Anaesthetic Department has produced this video demonstrating how to 'don' (put on) and 'doff' (take off) PPE pre- and post-intubation of a high risk/infected patient with COVID-19. -
Content ArticleThe United Nations 2015 Millennium Development Goals targeted a 75% reduction in maternal mortality. However, in spite of this goal, the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births remains unacceptably high across Sub-Saharan Africa. Because many of these deaths could likely be averted with access to safe surgery, including cesarean delivery, Epiu et al. set out to assess the capacity to provide safe anaesthetic care for mothers in the main referral hospitals in East Africa. The authors identified significant shortages of both the personnel and equipment needed to provide safe anaesthetic care for obstetric surgical cases across East Africa. There is a need to increase the number of physician anaesthetists, to improve the training of non-physician anaesthesia providers, and to develop management protocols for obstetric patients requiring anaesthesia. This will strengthen health systems and improve surgical outcomes in developing countries. More funding is required for training physician anaesthetists if developing countries are to reach the targeted specialist workforce density of the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery of 20 surgical, anaesthetic, and obstetric physicians per 100,000 population by 2030.
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Content ArticleThe prevention of healthcare associated infections (HAIs) is an integral component of good medical practice; anaesthetists have a central role in ensuring every patient receives the best protection against HAIs. In this guideline, written by the Association of Anaesthetists, recommendations include that there should be a named lead consultant in each department of anaesthesia who is responsible for liaising with their trust’s infection prevention and control team and occupational health department to ensure best antimicrobial practice is maintained in all areas of anaesthetic practice.
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Content ArticleThe Association for Perioperative Practice (AfPP) is calling for action to be taken after a recent never events report suggests little progress has been made to prevent errors within the perioperative environment.
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Content ArticleMethoxyflurane, an agent formerly used as a volatile anaesthetic but that has strong analgesic properties, will soon become available again in the UK and Europe in the form of a small hand-held inhaler. Gaskell et al. describe their experience in the use of inhaled methoxyflurane for procedural analgesia within a large tertiary hospital in New Zealand.
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Content ArticleIt has been estimated that, on average, a serious mistake in medication administration occurs once in every 133 anaesthetic medications. Anaesthetic medications often have a narrow therapeutic window, raising the potential for adverse outcomes including harmful physiological disturbances, awareness, anaphylaxis and even death. Marshall and Chrimes in this editorial examine the causes of the medication‐handling problem and discuss solutions that address the human factors considerations.
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Content ArticleThere has been an increase in the number of units providing anaesthesia for magnetic resonance imaging and the strength of magnetic resonance scanners, as well as the number of interventions and operations performed within the magnetic resonance environment. More devices and implants are now magnetic resonance imaging conditional, allowing scans to be undertaken in patients for whom this was previously not possible. There has also been a revision in terminology relating to magnetic resonance safety of devices. These guidelines, by the Association of Anaesthetists, have been put together by organisations who are involved in the pathways for patients needing magnetic resonance, reinforce the safety aspects of providing anaesthesia in the magnetic resonance environment and suggest that hospitals should develop and audit governance procedures to ensure that anaesthetists of all grades are competent to deliver anaesthesia in the magnetic resonance environment.
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Content Article
Peri-operative care of people with dementia, 2019
Claire Cox posted an article in Dementia
Ageing populations have greater incidences of dementia. People with dementia present for emergency and, increasingly, elective surgery, but are poorly served by the lack of available guidance on their peri-operative management, particularly relating to pharmacological, medico-legal, environmental and attitudinal considerations. These guidelines seek to provide information for peri-operative care providers about dementia pathophysiology, specific difficulties anaesthetising patients with dementia, medication interactions, organisational and medico-legal factors, pre-, intra- and postoperative care considerations, training, sources of further information and care quality improvement tools. -
Content ArticleThe 5th National Audit Project (or NAP5) of the Royal College of Anaesthetists and Association of Anaesthetists was the largest ever study into accidental awareness during general anaesthesia (AAGA). Numerous publications emerged from the project and whereas a comprehensive list of 64 recommendations were made, the full report and associated publications were primarily academic outputs not accessible to all practitioners as a day-to-day ready reference, nor did they provide practical recommendations that individuals could use in their daily practice. The purpose of this publication is to distil and interpret the findings of the 5th National Audit Project into actions that individuals (and organisations) can follow to reduce the risk of accidental awareness.
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Content ArticleIn this video, Prof Kevin Fong, Consultant Anaesthetist at UCL (University College London) is joined in a panel discussion by three other experts in Human Factors and Ergonomics (HFE): Dr Fiona Kelly, Consultant Anaesthetist and Intensivist at Royal United Hospitals Bath and lead of the Difficult Airway Society (DAS) group on HFE Prof Chris Frerk, Consultant Anaesthetist at Northampton General Hospital and CHFG (Clinical Human Factors Group)Trustee Mr Clinton John, Operating Department Practitioner and Head for Clinical Education at UCLH. They will discuss and share their top tips about HFE in the context of airway management. This forms part of a free course from Future Learn Airway Matters course to help others explore key concepts underlying safe, multidisciplinary airway management.
