Assessing the Adequacy of Perioperative Pain Management on Immediate Post-Operative Analgesia for Patients Anesthetised Under General Anesthesia who had Elective Intraabdominal Surgeries in Lautoka Hospital – A Retrospective Audit

Introduction@#Perioperative pain is a major problem for patients undergoing surgery. Inadequate pain relief can lead to complications like pneumonia, extended hospital stay, re-admissions and patient dissatisfaction. The aim of this research was to determine adequacy of perioperative pain management on immediate post-operative analgesia for elective Intra-abdominal procedures done under general anaesthesia.@*Method@#This is a retrospective study which involved auditing inpatient folders from the 1st of January to 31st of December, 2015.The inclusion criteria were those between the ages of 18 to 60years who had Elective Intra-abdominalprocedure done under general anesthesia.Each folder was audited for perioperative pain management from surgical and anaesthetic charts and data were entered into a proforma list. EpiInfo 3.1 software and Microsoft Excel Spreadsheetwere used for analysis of the extracted data.@*Results@#159 records met the inclusion criteria but only 127 folders were recovered. 28% of patients recorded pain in the immediate postoperative period. There were more females than males and Total Abdominal Hysterectomies was the most common procedure. The age between 31 to 40 years, reported the most pain. Open cholecystectomy’s procedures recorded the most pain complaints and hernia repairs had the least. Verbal response was the highest pain indicator used and 11% of patients who indicated having some pain went from PARU untreated. There were no records of usage of pain scales in any folder retrieved.@*Discussion@#Pain recording in the recovery unit was heavily dependent on the recovery nurse and the patient. The incidence of immediate postoperative pain from this study group was lower when compared to other studies. This could be due to a lack of documentation or a reflection on how well perioperative pain treatment has been done in Lautoka. @*Conclusion@#Overall management of perioperative pain still needs improvement. The anaesthetic team should seriously look at this problem as Anaesthetists are still unaware of their patients pain. It is highly recommend that the formulation of an Acute Pain Management Protocol for Fiji to ensure that Pain be included as the 5th vital sign.

Inferior venacaval compression due to excessive abdominal packing / Compressão da veia cava inferior por causa do excesso de tamponamento abdominal / Comprensión de la vena cava inferior debido al exceso de taponamiento abdominal

Inferior venacaval compression is a common problem in late pregnancy. It can also occur due to compression of inferior venacava by abdominal or pelvic tumors. We report a case of acute iatrogenic inferior venacaval compression due to excessive abdominal packing during an intraabdominal surgery.

Compressão da veia cava inferior é um problema comum no fim da gravidez. Também pode ocorrer por causa da compressão da veia cava inferior por tumores abdominais ou pélvicos. Relatamos um caso de compressão iatrogênica aguda da veia cava inferior por causa do excesso de tamponamento durante uma cirurgia intra-abdominal.

La compresión de la vena cava inferior es un problema común al final del embarazo. También puede ocurrir debido a la compresión de la vena cava inferior por tumores abdominales o pélvicos. Relatamos un caso de compresión iatrogénica aguda de la vena cava inferior debido al exceso de taponamiento durante una cirugía intraabdominal.

Infection as an independent risk factor for mortality in the surgical intensive care unit

OBJECTIVES: Medical and surgical intensive care unit patients represent two different populations and require different treatment approaches. The aim of this study was to investigate the parameters associated with mortality in medical and surgical intensive care units. METHODS: This was a prospective cohort study of adult patients admitted to a medical and surgical intensive care unit teaching hospital over an 11-month period. Factors associated with mortality were explored using logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: In total, 827 admissions were observed, and 525 patients >18 years old and with a length of stay >24 h were analyzed. Of these patients, 227 were in the medical and 298 were in the surgical intensive care unit. The surgical patients were older (p<0.01) and had shorter lengths of stay (p<0.01). The mortality in the intensive care unit (35.1 vs. 26.2, p = 0.02) and hospital (48.8 vs. 35.5, p<0.01) was higher for medical patients. For patients in the surgical intensive care unit, death was independently associated with the need for mechanical ventilation, prognostic score (SAPS II), community-acquired infection, nosocomial infection, and intensive care unit-acquired infection. For patients in the medical intensive care unit, death was independently associated with the need for mechanical ventilation and prognostic score. CONCLUSIONS: Although the presence of infection is associated with a high mortality in both the medical and surgical intensive care units, the results of this prospective study suggest that infection has a greater impact in patients admitted to the surgical intensive care unit. Measures and trials to prevent and treat sepsis may be most effective in the surgical intensive care unit population. .