Evaluation of a Course to Teach Medical Students Latent Hazard Identification in the Operating Room.

INTRODUCTION: To improve situational awareness in the operating room (OR), a virtual online operating room of hazards (ROH) with deliberately placed risks was created. We hypothesized that subjects first participating in the virtual online ROH would identify more hazards during an in-person ROH exercise in a physical OR than those in the control group who only received didactic training. METHODS: We conducted a randomized controlled trial at a major academic medical center, enrolling 48 pre-clinical medical students with no previous OR exposure during their classes. Control and experimental group subjects participated in a brief, online didactic orientation session conducted live over Zoom (Zoom Video Communications, Inc., San Jose, CA) to learn about latent hazards in the OR. Experimental group subjects further interacted with a virtual online operating ROH in which latent hazards were present. The fraction of deliberately created latent hazards placed in a physical, in-person OR identified by subjects was calculated. RESULTS: Experimental group subjects identified a significantly larger fraction of the created hazards (41.3%) than the control group (difference = 16.4%, 95% CI: 11.3% to 21.4%, P < 0.0001). There was no difference in the number of non-hazards misidentified as hazards between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: Participation in the virtual online environment resulted in greater recognition of latent operating room hazards during a simulation conducted in a physical, in-person OR than in a didactic experience alone. Because creating an in-room experience to teach the identification of latent hazards in an OR is resource-intensive and requires removing the OR from clinical use, we recommend the virtual online approach described for training purposes. Adding items most misidentified as hazards is suggested for future implementation.

A Novel Approach to the Room of Errors (ROE): A Three-Dimensional Virtual Tour Activity to Spotlight Patient Safety Threats.

BACKGROUND: Live simulation-based activities are effective tools in teaching situational awareness to improve patient safety training in healthcare settings. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic forced the discontinuation of these in-person sessions. We describe our solution to this challenge: an online interactive activity titled the "Virtual Room of Errors." The aim of this activity is to create an accessible and feasible method of educating healthcare providers about situational awareness in the hospital.  Materials and Methods: We applied existing three-dimensional virtual tour technology used in the real estate sector to a hospital patient room with a standardized patient and 46 intentionally placed hazards. Healthcare providers and students from our institution accessed the room online through a link where they independently navigate, and document observed safety hazards.  Results: In 2021 and 2022, a total of 510 learners completed the virtual Room of Errors (ROE). The virtual ROE increased annual participation in the activity, as compared to the in-person Room, and demonstrated learner satisfaction.  Conclusions: The virtual ROE is an accessible, feasible, and cost-effective method of educating healthcare workers on situational awareness of preventable hazards. Furthermore, the activity is a sustainable way to reach a larger number of learners from multiple disciplines, even as in-person activities resume.

Benchmarking Surgeons' Gender and Year of Medical School Graduation Associated With Monthly Operative Workdays for Multispecialty Groups.

Background Female surgeons reportedly receive less surgical block time and fewer procedural referrals than male surgeons. In this study, we compared operative days between female and male surgeons throughout Florida. Our objective was to facilitate benchmarking by multispecialty groups, both the endpoint to use for statistically reliable results and expected differences. Methodology The historical cohort study included all 4,060,070 ambulatory procedural encounters and inpatient elective surgical states performed between January 2017 and December 2019 by 8,472 surgeons at 609 facilities. Surgeons' gender, year of medical school graduation, and surgical specialty were obtained from their National Provider Identifiers. Results Female surgeons operated an average of 1.0 fewer days per month than matched male surgeons (99% confidence interval 0.8 to 1.2 fewer days, P < 0.0001). The mean differences were 0.8 to 1.4 fewer days per month among each of the five quintiles of years of graduation from medical school (all P ≤ 0.0050). Results were comparable when repeated using the number of monthly cases the surgeons performed. Conclusions An average difference of ≤1.4 days per month is a conservative estimate for the current status quo of the workload difference in Florida. Suppose that a group's female surgeons average more than two fewer operative days per month than the group's male surgeons of the same specialty. Such a large average difference would call for investigation of what might reflect systematic bias. While such a difference may reflect good flexibility of the organization, it may show a lack of responsiveness (e.g., fewer referrals of procedural patients to female surgeons or bias when apportioning allocated operating room time).

Co2 Rebreathing Observed While Using a Bag-Mask Resuscitator With Integrated Manometer: A Case Report.

Bag-mask resuscitators with integrated manometry help reduce the risk of pulmonary injury during manual ventilation. All such devices must function as intended while preventing carbon dioxide rebreathing, as unintended hypercapnia can be harmful in critically ill patients. We describe a case of carbon dioxide rebreathing in a patient suspected of having a brain injury after blunt trauma who was manually ventilated with a widely available bag-mask resuscitator with integrated manometry after emergent intubation. This case highlights the importance of vigilant monitoring of end-tidal carbon dioxide and appropriate troubleshooting and investigation of unexplained findings to mitigate and prevent adverse patient outcomes.

Lower Extremity Injury While Undergoing Urology Procedures in the Trendelenburg with Lithotomy Position: Three Case Reports.

PURPOSE: To report and discuss the incidence of severe lower extremity injuries associated with robotic procedures in Trendelenburg with lithotomy position. DESIGN AND METHODS: A case study method was used to describe three cases of patients who underwent robotically assisted urological procedures in Trendelenburg with lithotomy position and developed serious lower extremities injuries resulting in fasciotomies. Furthermore, a literature review was conducted to evaluate risk factors and possible interventions for the prevention of similar injuries. FINDINGS: Case analysis revealed multifactorial causes, including patient comorbidities, long surgical procedures, and blood pressure decreases below the baseline for more than 30 minutes. The severity of lower extremity injury associated with lithotomy position may be underestimated. The etiology of peripheral nerve injury can be attributed to patient comorbidities, positioning, and surgical conditions. Injury prevention should include careful patient and procedural risk assessment, staff education, and communication strategies. CONCLUSIONS: Extreme Trendelenburg with lithotomy position for longer periods can lead to serious lower extremities injuries. Preanesthetic screening and multidisciplinary team discussions for additional precautions for high-risk patients are crucial interventions to decrease incidence and severity of lower extremities injuries.

Unconsciousness After Regional Anesthesia for Arteriovenous Fistula Revision in a Patient with End-stage Renal Disease.

Chronic kidney disease can lead to different chronic complications. We describe a case where a patient with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) became unresponsive during transportation to the recovery room, following finishing an arteriovenous fistula revision. The patient had received supraclavicular block ninety minutes prior to the incident and surgery was finished under monitored anesthesia care (MAC). After five minutes of chest compression and intubation, monitoring showed normal sinus rhythm and the return of spontaneous circulation. The patient was transferred to the intensive care unit and extubated two days later while she was alert, oriented and hemodynamically stable. CT pulmonary angiogram showed no evidence of pulmonary emboli and echocardiogram did not show any further cardiac event comparing to preoperative status. Ruling out other differential diagnoses for patient's unconsciousness, we have discussed the possibility of neuraxial anesthesia after upper extremity block in this patient.

Prevalence of discordant elevations of state entropy and bispectral index in patients at amnestic sevoflurane concentrations: a historical cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Processed electroencephalogram (EEG) monitors help assess the hypnotic state during general anesthesia or sedation. Maintaining the bispectral index (BIS) or state entropy (SE) between 40 and 60 has been recommended to mitigate anesthesia awareness. Nonetheless, SEs > 70 were frequently observed at end-tidal sevoflurane concentrations unlikely to allow awareness. We sought to determine the prevalence of elevated discordant measurements during BIS and SE monitoring. METHODS: Electronic data collected over 11 months at two academic hospitals were retrospectively reviewed. At the hospital using SE, all cases were included with patients ≥ 18 yr and sevoflurane administered for at least 30 min during surgery. A cohort of cases propensity matched by age and American Society of Anesthesiologist Physical Status were selected from the hospital using BIS. Elevated discordant EEG indices were defined as values > 70 occurring during stable end-tidal sevoflurane concentrations > 1.5%. The odds ratio (OR) based on the probability of a case having at least one elevated discordant SE or BIS lasting ≥ two minutes (primary endpoint) was calculated. RESULTS: At each hospital, 3,690 cases were studied. The mean (95% confidence interval [CI]) incidence of cases with at least one interval of an elevated discordant EEG index lasting at least two minutes was 3.6% (2.8% to 4.4%) for SE compared with 0.24% (0.17% to 0.27%) for BIS (pooled OR, 17.0; 95% CI, 8.3 to 34.7; P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of an elevated discordant EEG index is much greater with SE than with BIS. Elevated index values occurring at anesthetic concentrations well above the awareness threshold need to be assessed to determine if they indicate an inadequate depth of anesthesia requiring treatment or if they simply reflect the underlying monitoring algorithm.

Validation of a New Method to Automatically Select Cases With Intraoperative Red Blood Cell Transfusion for Audit.

BACKGROUND: Hospitals review allogeneic red blood cell (RBC) transfusions for appropriateness. Audit criteria have been published that apply to 5 common procedures. We expanded on this work to study the management decision of selecting which cases involving transfusion of at least 1 RBC unit to audit (review) among all surgical procedures, including those previously studied. METHODS: This retrospective, observational study included 400,000 cases among 1891 different procedures over an 11-year period. There were 12,616 cases with RBC transfusion. We studied the proportions of cases that would be audited based on criteria of nadir hemoglobin (Hb) greater than the hospital's selected transfusion threshold, or absent Hb or missing estimated blood loss (EBL) among procedures with median EBL <500 mL. This threshold EBL was selected because it is approximately the volume removed during the donation of a single unit of whole blood at a blood bank. Missing EBL is important to the audit decision for cases in which the procedures' median EBL is <500 mL because, without an indication of the extent of bleeding, there are insufficient data to assume that there was sufficient blood loss to justify the transfusion. RESULTS: Most cases (>50%) that would be audited and most cases (>50%) with transfusion were among procedures with median EBL <500 mL (P < .0001). Among cases with transfusion and nadir Hb >9 g/dL, the procedure's median EBL was <500 mL for 3.0 times more cases than for procedures having a median EBL ≥500 mL. A greater percentage of cases would be recommended for audit based on missing values for Hb and/or EBL than based on exceeding the Hb threshold among cases of procedures with median EBL ≥500 mL (P < .0001). There were 3.7 times as many cases with transfusion that had missing values for Hb and/or EBL than had a nadir Hb >9 g/dL and median EBL for the procedure ≥500 mL. CONCLUSIONS: An automated process to select cases for audit of intraoperative transfusion of RBC needs to consider the median EBL of the procedure, whether the nadir Hb is below the hospital's Hb transfusion threshold for surgical cases, and the absence of either a Hb or entry of the EBL for the case. This conclusion applies to all surgical cases and procedures.

Perioperative Temperature Measurement Considerations Relevant to Reporting Requirements for National Quality Programs Using Data From Anesthesia Information Management Systems.

BACKGROUND: Perioperative hypothermia may increase the incidences of wound infection, blood loss, transfusion, and cardiac morbidity. US national quality programs for perioperative normothermia specify the presence of at least 1 "body temperature" ≥35.5°C during the interval from 30 minutes before to 15 minutes after the anesthesia end time. Using data from 4 academic hospitals, we evaluated timing and measurement considerations relevant to the current requirements to guide hospitals wishing to report perioperative temperature measures using electronic data sources. METHODS: Anesthesia information management system databases from 4 hospitals were queried to obtain intraoperative temperatures and intervals to the anesthesia end time from discontinuation of temperature monitoring, end of surgery, and extubation. Inclusion criteria included age >16 years, use of a tracheal tube or supraglottic airway, and case duration ≥60 minutes. The end-of-case temperature was determined as the maximum intraoperative temperature recorded within 30 minutes before the anesthesia end time (ie, the temperature that would be used for reporting purposes). The fractions of cases with intervals >30 minutes between the last intraoperative temperature and the anesthesia end time were determined. RESULTS: Among the hospitals, averages (binned by quarters) of 34.5% to 59.5% of cases had intraoperative temperature monitoring discontinued >30 minutes before the anesthesia end time. Even if temperature measurement had been continued until extubation, averages of 5.9% to 20.8% of cases would have exceeded the allowed 30-minute window. Averages of 8.9% to 21.3% of cases had end-of-case intraoperative temperatures <35.5°C (ie, a quality measure failure). CONCLUSIONS: Because of timing considerations, a substantial fraction of cases would have been ineligible to use the end-of-case intraoperative temperature for national quality program reporting. Thus, retrieval of postanesthesia care unit temperatures would have been necessary. A substantive percentage of cases had end-of-case intraoperative temperatures below the 35.5°C threshold, also requiring postoperative measurement to determine whether the quality measure was satisfied. Institutions considering reporting national quality measures for perioperative normothermia should consider the technical and logistical issues identified to achieve a high level of compliance based on the specified regulatory language.

Case report: management of differential diagnosis and treatment of severe anaphylaxis in the setting of spinal anesthesia.

The purpose of this case report is to educate fellow anesthesiologists of a complicated differential diagnosis for sudden cardiovascular collapse after spinal anesthesia. We report a case where anaphylaxis occurred while under spinal anesthesia and resulted in difficult resuscitation. A 58-year-old woman undergoing bilateral knee replacements under spinal anesthesia experienced sudden seizure and cardiovascular collapse from acute anaphylactic shock while administering a cephalosporin. Local anesthetic toxicity, high spinal, and anaphylaxis were considered due to overlapping of symptoms. Successful resuscitation required prolonged advanced cardiac life support with substantially larger doses of epinephrine. Anaphylactic shock under spinal anesthesia is an acute and life-threatening complication, worsened by the spinal-induced sympathectomy, and aggressive resuscitation is warranted. Despite the presence of overlapping symptoms of differential diagnoses, rapid identification of the cause of cardiovascular collapse is crucial given that resuscitation treatment modalities may conflict. Timing of antibiotic administration should be adjusted for spinal anesthesia cases to allow time to detect possible anaphylaxis.

Comparison of Outside Versus Inside Brachial Plexus Sheath Injection for Ultrasound-Guided Interscalene Nerve Blocks.

OBJECTIVES: Ultrasound-guided interscalene brachial plexus blocks are commonly used to provide anesthesia for the shoulder and proximal upper extremity. Some reviews identify a sheath that envelops the brachial plexus as a potential tissue plane target, and current editorials in the literature highlight the need to establish precise and reproducible injection targets under ultrasound guidance. We hypothesize that an injection of a local anesthetic inside the brachial plexus sheath during ultrasound-guided interscalene nerve blocks will result in enhanced procedure success and provide a consistent tissue plane target for this approach with a reproducible and characteristic local anesthetic spread pattern. METHODS: Sixty patients scheduled for shoulder surgery with a preoperative interscalene block for postoperative pain management were enrolled in this prospective randomized observer-blinded study. Each patient was randomly assigned to receive a single-shot interscalene block either inside or outside the brachial plexus sheath. RESULTS: The rate of complete motor and sensory blocks of the axillary nerve territory 10 minutes after local anesthetic injection for the inside group was 70% versus 37% for the outside group (P < .05). At all measurement intervals beyond 10 minutes, however, neither group showed a statistically significant difference in complete sensory blockade. The incidence rates of transient paresthesia during needle passage were 6.7% for the outside group and 96.7% for the inside group (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: Except for faster onset, this prospective randomized trial did not find any advantages to performing an interscalene block inside the brachial plexus sheath. There was a higher incidence of transient paresthesia when injections were performed inside compared to outside the sheath.

Outpatient regional anesthesia for upper extremity surgery update (2005 to present) distal to shoulder.

Multiple different approaches to the brachial plexus are available for the regional anesthesiologist to provide successful anesthesia and analgesia for ambulatory surgery of the upper extremity. Although supraclavicular and infraclavicular blocks are faster to perform than axillary blocks, the operator needs to keep in mind that blocks performed around the clavicle carry the risk for specific side effects and complications, no matter whether ultrasound or nerve stimulation is the chosen modality for neurolocation. Owing to the ambulatory nature of the planned surgical intervention, even significant side effects may not become clinically symptomatic until the patient is discharged from the facility. For example, due to pneumothorax risks, axillary or mid-humeral blocks remain the most logical approaches for ambulatory surgical procedures at and below the elbow, while reserving infra-clavicularor supraclavicular approaches for surgery from the proximal humerus to above the elbow. Smaller interventions such as carpal tunnel release or trigger finger release can be performed under elbow, wrist, or digital blocks. The regional anesthesiologist should strive to develop a tailored plan for each individual case to provide the most effective and safest nerve block technique for their patients.