audit of postoperative minor complications of anesthesia

To look at minor complications attributable to anesthesia in adult surgical patients at our Institution and to identify various contributing factors. Descriptive cross sectional audit. Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan. Seven hundred and thirty surgical patients undergoing elective surgery were recruited. This was a non-interventional study and data was collected prospectively based on predefined criteria. The incidence of nausea, vomiting, sore throat, headache, drowsiness, phlebitis, dizziness, myalgia, transient nerve palsy, conjunctivitis, ringing of ears, low backache, lip injury, dental injury or any other minor complications were looked at. Nausea, sore throat and vomiting were the highest reported complications. The incidence of nausea, drowsiness and dizziness was less in patients more than sixty years of age. Incidence of nausea and vomiting was higher in ASA 1 patients and in surgery lasting less than ninety minutes. Headache and dizziness were reported high in certain surgical specialties. The overall rate of minor complications following anesthesia was 12.6%. No complications were reported by 30% of the study population. The data has given us a benchmark for patient information and will be used for risk reduction in our Department of Anaesthesiology

Anatomical variations of internal jugular vein as seen by Site Rite II ultrasound machine-an initial experience in pakistani population

OBJECTIVE: To determine the anatomical variations of the internal jugular vein [IJV] in Pakistani adult population with the help of Site Rite II ultrasound machine. MATERIAL AND METHOD: The right IJV relation to the carotid artery was visualized at four different landmarks [angle of the mandible, thyroid cartilage, cricoid cartilage, and the supraclavicular area]. Size of IJV in comparison to carotid artery was also seen. In 49 cases the IJV was found in aberrant relation to carotid artery at the angle of the mandible [p value < 0.05], 22 at the thyroid cartilage, 20 at the cricoid cartilage, and 46 at the supraclavicular area [p value < 0.05]. In 93% of cases the IJV was found to be larger than the carotid artery. Care should be taken while cannulating IJV at the angle of the mandible and supra clavicular area by external landmark guided technique. Ultrasound guided technique should be used in every anticipated difficult case