Association of amisulpride and recovery room length of stay among patients with postoperative nausea and vomiting following outpatient surgery.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) is a common sequela of surgery in patients undergoing general anesthesia. Amisulpride has shown promise in its ability to treat PONV. The objective of this study was to determine if amisulpride is associated with significant changes in PACU efficiency within a fast-paced ambulatory surgery center. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of 816 patients at a single ambulatory surgery center who experienced PONV between 2018 and 2023. The two cohorts analyzed were patients who did or did not have amisulpride among their anti-emetic regimens in the PACU during two distinct time periods (before and after amisulpride was introduced). The primary outcome of the study was PACU length of stay. Both unmatched analysis and a linear multivariable mixed-effects model fit by restricted maximum likelihood (random effect being surgical procedure) were used to analyze the association between amisulpride and PACU length of stay. We performed segmented regression to account for cohorts occurring during two time periods. RESULTS: Unmatched univariate analysis revealed no significant difference in PACU length of stay (minutes) between the amisulpride and no amisulpride cohorts (115 min vs 119 min, respectively; P = 0.07). However, when addressing confounders by means of the mixed-effects multivariable segmented regression, the amisulpride cohort was associated with a statistically significant reduction in PACU length of stay by 26.1 min (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that amisulpride was associated with a significant decrease in PACU length of stay among patients with PONV in a single outpatient surgery center. The downstream cost-savings and operational efficiency gained from this drug's implementation may serve as a useful lens through which this drug's widespread implementation may further be rationalized.

Carbohydrate Loading and Aspiration Risk in Bariatric Patients: Safety in Preoperative Enhanced Recovery Protocols.

BACKGROUND: Enhanced recovery protocols have been developed to improve perioperative outcomes; however, there is ongoing concern for aspiration with recent oral intake in patients with obesity, who may be predisposed to impaired gastrointestinal motility and greater gastric volumes. We aim to study the safety of a 300-mL preoperative carbohydrate-loading drink preceding bariatric surgery. STUDY DESIGN: Data were collected prospectively from patients undergoing primary bariatric surgery. All bariatric patients at our institution are prescribed a proton pump inhibitor for 4 weeks before surgery and undergo a screening preoperative esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) before surgery with a traditional 8-hour fast (NOCARB), followed by an intraoperative day-of-operation EGD with carbohydrate loading (CARB) 2 to 4 hours before incision. Gastric volumes and pH are measured after being endoscopically suctioned via direct visualization during both settings. RESULTS: We identified 203 patients: 94 patients (46.3%) in the CARB group and 109 patients (53.7%) in the NOCARB group. The patients were 82.3% female with a mean age of 42.8 years and average BMI of 41.7 kg/m 2 . There was no difference in gastric volume between NOCARB and CARB (17.0 vs 16.1 mL, p = 0.59). The NOCARB group had lower pH values than the CARB group (2.8 vs 3.8, p = 0.001). Subset analysis of 23 patients who had measurements on both screening and intraoperative EGD revealed lower gastric volumes in CARB patients (13.3 vs 18.3, p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: When included in an enhanced recovery protocol, proton pump inhibitor use and preoperative carbohydrate loading 2 to 4 hours before bariatric surgery does not increase aspiration risk based on gastric volumes and pH and should be strongly considered in all eligible bariatric patients.

Recommendations for developing clinical care protocols during pandemics: From theory and practice.

In 2019, a novel coronavirus called the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 led to the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019, which was deemed a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020. Owing to the accelerated rate of mortality and utilization of hospital resources, health care systems had to adapt to these major changes. This affected patient care across all disciplines and specifically within the perioperative services. In this review, we discuss the strategies and pitfalls of how perioperative services in a large academic medical center responded to the initial onset of a pandemic, adjustments made to airway management and anesthesia specialty services - including critical care medicine, obstetric anesthesiology, and cardiac anesthesiology - and strategies for reopening surgical caseload during the pandemic.

National trends in nonoperating room anesthesia: procedures, facilities, and patient characteristics.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Nonoperating room anesthesia (NORA) continues to increase in popularity and scope. This article reviews current and new trends in NORA, trends in anesthesia management in nonoperating room settings, and the evolving debates surrounding these trends. RECENT FINDINGS: National data suggests that NORA cases will continue to rise relative to operating room (OR) anesthesia and there will continue to be a shift towards performing more interventional procedures outside of the OR. These trends have important implications for the safety of interventional procedures as they become increasingly more complex and patients continue to be older and more frail. In order for anesthesia providers and proceduralists to be prepared for this future, rigorous standards must be set for safe anesthetic care outside of the OR.Although the overall association between NORA and patient morbidity and mortality remains unclear, focused studies point toward trends specific to each non-OR procedure type. Given increasing patient and procedure complexity, anesthesiology teams may see a larger role in the interventional suite. However, the ideal setting and placement of anesthesia staff for interventional procedures remain controversial. Also, the impact of COVID-19 on the growth and utilization of non-OR anesthesia remains unclear, and it remains to be seen how the pandemic will influence the delivery of NORA procedures in postpandemic settings. SUMMARY: NORA is a rapidly growing field of anesthesia. Continuing discussions of complication rates and mortality in different subspecialty areas will determine the need for anesthesia care and quality improvement efforts in each setting. As new noninvasive procedures are developed, new data will continue to shape debates surrounding anesthesia care outside of the operating room.

Peripartum Cardiomyopathy: Current Options for Treatment and Cardiovascular Support.

Peripartum cardiomyopathy is a rare form of acute heart failure but the major cause of all deaths in pregnant patients with heart failure. Improved survival rates in recent years, however, emphasize the importance of early recognition and initiation of heart failure treatment. This article, therefore, attempts to raise awareness among cardiac and obstetric anesthesiologists as well as intensivists of this often fatal diagnosis. This review summarizes theories of the pathophysiology and outcome of peripartum cardiomyopathy. Based on the most recent literature, it further outlines diagnostic criteria and treatment options including medical management, mechanical circulatory support devices, and heart transplantation. Earlier recognition of this rare condition and a new generation of mechanical circulatory devices has contributed to the improved outcome. More frequently, patients in cardiogenic shock who fail medical management are successfully bridged to recovery on extracorporeal circulatory devices or survive with a long-lasting implantable ventricular assist device. The outcome of transplanted patients with peripartum cardiomyopathy, however, is worse compared to other recipients of heart transplants and warrants further investigation in the future.

Emergency department visits among patients with left ventricular assist devices.

Continuous-flow left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are increasingly implanted to support patients with end-stage heart failure. These patients are at high risk for complications, many of which necessitate emergency care. While rehospitalization rates have been described, there is little data regarding emergency department (ED) visits. We hypothesize that ED visits are frequent and often require admission after LVAD implantation. We performed a retrospective review of patients in our health-care system followed by the advanced heart failure service for LVAD management after implantation between January 2011 and July 2015. We accounted for all ED visits in our system through February 2016, 7 months after the last implantation included. Clinically relevant demographic variables and ED visit details were recorded and analyzed to describe this population. We identified 81 patients with complete data, among whom there were 283 visits (3.49 visits/patient), occurring at a rate of approximately 7.3 ED visits per patient per year alive with LVAD. The most common reason for an ED visit is a complication related to bleeding (18% of visits), followed by chest pain (14%) and dizziness or syncope (13%). Thirty-six percent of patients were discharged from the ED without hospital admission. A growing populace with implanted LVADs represents an important population within emergency medicine. They are at risk for significant complications and frequently present to the ED. While many of these visits may be managed without hospital admission, this specialized patient group represents a potential area for improvement in provider education.

Hemodynamic Consequence of Hand Ventilation Versus Machine Ventilation During Transport After Cardiac Surgery.

OBJECTIVES: The hemodynamic consequences of ventilation of intubated patients during transport either by hand or using a transport ventilator have not been reported in patients after cardiac surgery. The authors hypothesized that bag-mask ventilation would alter end-tidal CO2 during transport and hemodynamic parameters in patients post-cardiac surgery. DESIGN: A prospective, randomized trial. SETTING: A university-affiliated tertiary care hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Cardiac surgery patients. INTERVENTIONS: Thirty-six patients were randomized to hand ventilation or machine ventilation. Hemodynamic variables including blood pressure, heart rate, peripheral saturation of oxygen, and end-tidal carbon dioxide (ETCO2) were measured in these patients prior to transport, every 2 minutes during transport and upon arrival in the intensive care unit (ICU). Pulmonary artery pressure (PA) pressures were measured at origin and at destination. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Outcomes were changes from baseline in end-tidal CO2, hemodynamic changes from baseline and pulmonary artery pressure changes from origin to destination. The average transport time between the 2 groups was not different: 5 minutes for patients ventilated by hand and 5.47 minutes for patients ventilated with a transport ventilator (p = 0.369 by 2-sided t-test). The difference in all measured changes in ETCO2 between hand-ventilated and machine-ventilated patients during transport was 2.74 mmHg (p = 0.013). The difference between operating room and ICU ETCO2 from each cohort was 1.31 mmHg (p = 0.067). The difference in PAmean measured at origin and destination was 0.783 mmHg (p = 0.622). All other hemodynamic variables were not different during transport. CONCLUSIONS: Hand ventilation during transport was associated with greater change from baseline of ETCO2 compared to machine ventilation during transport after cardiac surgery, but this did not translate into any difference in hemodynamic changes upon arrival in ICU. A hemodynamic benefit of machine transport ventilation to cardiac patients was not demonstrated.

An empirical test of the theory of morphic resonance by using recognition for Chinese symbols.

Tests of the theory of morphic resonance have tended to confirm the theory's predictions but are difficult to evaluate since they are typically reported in popular accounts rather than more detailed peer-reviewed journal papers. We replicated earlier work using word-based stimuli in a study that also looked at the effects of transliminality on performance. Sixty participants were exposed to five genuine Chinese characters and five false characters. Subsequently, participants identified the characters they could recognize among a sheet consisting of those originally presented intermixed with 10 decoys. As predicted, participants accurately recognized more of the genuine than false characters, t(59) = 2.40, P = .020, but also were more likely to report false memories for genuine than false characters, t(59) = 3.805, P < .001. Transliminality scores were related to performance with presented characters (r = .38; P = .003) but not with decoy characters (r = .14, P = .28).