Enhanced Recovery After Cardiac Surgery.

The aims of "Fast track" cardiac anesthesia including shortening time to tracheal extubation and to hospital discharge in selected patients. The evidence is weak and recommendations are mostly based on observational, nonrandomized data and expert opinion. The majority of outcomes studied include: time to tracheal extubation, hospital/ICU length of stay, procedure-related financial costs, and the type/amount of opioids used in the peri-operative period. There should be a shift in focus to generating higher quality evidence supporting the use of enhanced recovery protocols in cardiac surgical patients and finding ways to tailor enhanced recovery principles to all cardiac surgical patients. Research should focus on the quality of care for individual patients and the delivery of health care to the public.

Inhalational anaesthetics, ozone depletion, and greenhouse warming: the basics and status of our efforts in environmental mitigation.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Following their use for medicinal purposes, volatile inhalational anaesthetic agents are expelled into the atmosphere where they contribute to anthropogenic climate change. We describe recent evidence examining the benefits and harms associated with their use. RECENT FINDINGS: The environmental harms associated with desflurane and nitrous oxide likely outweigh any purported clinical benefits. Life cycle analyses are beginning to address the many gaps in our understanding, and informing choices made on all aspects of anaesthetic care. There is, however, an urgent need to move beyond the debate about anaesthetic technique A vs. B and focus also on areas such as sustainable procurement, waste management, pharmacological stewardship and joined-up solutions. SUMMARY: There is now compelling evidence that anaesthetists, departments and hospitals should avoid desflurane completely, and limit nitrous oxide use to settings where there is no viable alternative, as their environmental harms outweigh any perceived clinical benefit. Life cycle analyses seem supportive of total intravenous and/or regional anaesthesia. There are many other areas where choices can be made by individual anaesthetists that contribute towards reducing the environmental burden of healthcare, such as prioritising the reduction of inappropriate resource use and over-treatment. However, this all requires joined up solutions where all parts of an organisation engage.

Patients with left ventricle assist devices presenting for thoracic surgery and lung resection: tips, tricks and evidence.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Over a thousand left ventricular-assist device (LVAD) implants were performed for heart failure destination therapy in 2017. With increasing survival, we are seeing increasing numbers of patients present for noncardiac surgery, including resections for cancer. This article will review the relevant literature and guidelines for patients with LVADs undergoing thoracic surgery, including lung resection. RECENT FINDINGS: The International Society for Heart and Lung Transplant Mechanically Assisted Circulatory Support Registry has received data on more than 16 000 patients with LVADs. Four-year survival is more than 60% for centrifugal devices. There are increasing case reports, summaries and recommendations for patients with LVADs undergoing noncardiac surgery. However, data on thoracic surgery is restricted to case reports. SUMMARY: Successful thoracic surgery requires understanding of the LVAD physiology. Modern devices are preload dependent and afterload sensitive. The effects of one-lung ventilation, including hypoxia and hypercapnia, may increase pulmonary vascular resistance and impair the right ventricle. Successful surgery necessitates a multidisciplinary approach, including thorough preoperative assessment; optimization and planning of intraoperative management strategies; and approaches to anticoagulation, right ventricular failure and LVAD flow optimization. This article discusses recent evidence on these topics.