Going To Sleep Is Free, But

How do you mark a surgical site?

• Categories: Medical errors, Anesthesia practice
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The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons has a policy on marking surgical sites titled Guidelines for Implementation of the Universal Protocol for the Prevention of Wrong Site, Wrong Procedure and Wrong Person Surgery. It's worth reviewing and comparing to your institutions policy. For example:

• Make the mark at or near the incision site. Do NOT mark any non-operative site(s) unless necessary for some other aspect of care.
• The mark should be unambiguous (e.g., use initials or "YES" or a line representing the proposed incision; consider that "X" may be ambiguous).
• The person performing the procedure should do the site marking.

There's much more to the guideline, but your current policies are most likely to be at variance with the above three points. One of the surgery centers I work at, for instance, marks the surgical site with an 'X'. I've explained to them that 'X' is ambiguous (does X mark the spot, or does X mark 'not this one'?) and even explained the details of a malpractice case in which marking with an X came into play. Another hospital was in the habit of marking both sides ('L' and 'R'). Also confusing. Finally, several centers have the nurse preparing the patient for surgery to mark the site. Also not a good idea.

You Anesthesiologist Today Was...

• Categories: Anesthesia practice, Anesthesia Tips
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I finally ordered my own business cards. I've had generic one available but always had to write in my own name (despite being with the group for well over two years) so decided it was time for an upgrade.

Picking the pattern was tough, but I decided on a tranquil image (that happens to be one of the MacOS X desktop images):

Rejected images included a dark tunnel with a light at the end, and anything with pearly gates.

This decision was evidence based (of course). Giving patients a business card before anesthesia increases their recall of your name to about 50% rather than the 10% that remember it without. It should also help them see they are being cared for by a physician. There's room on the back for 'anesthetic' and 'comments', too.

Pre-emptive Patient Positioning

• Categories: Anesthesia practice, Anesthesia Tips
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Many surgeries require the patient to be in a position other than supine (flat on their back) for the surgery to be done. Shoulder surgery, for example, is often done with the patient in a semi-sitting or 'beach chair' position. Certain hip surgeries are done with patients on their side as well. General anesthesia is induced with the patient supine, then people have to move the patient (who is now akin to a very heavy sack of potatoes) into the right position. It's time consuming, risks staff injury, and jeopardizes the airway. The few accidental extubations I've had have occurred when the patient was being moved. Does it have to be this way? If the case is amenable to an LMA, I think the answer is 'no.'

If I'm caring for a patient who will require a general anesthetic and an LMA would be suitable, I've taken to positioning the patient before induction of anesthesia. I then pre-oxygenate, perform an IV induction, and place the LMA. The OR staff and surgeons like it because a) it saves time and b) it saves their backs. I like it because there's no move during which my airway can potentially be compromised (and because it saves time and saves my back). There's a benefit to the patient, too. Namely, they can tell us while awake whether our positioning is comfortable for them. Is the axillary role in the right place? Do they need a pillow under their knees in? Is their bottom up against the back of the table in beach chair? Is their ear properly padded in the lateral position? Think Different (but always, Think Safe).

I Am A Propofologist

• Categories: Anesthesia practice
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I've decided to change my title from 'Anesthesiologist' to the more descriptive 'Propofologist.' Maybe it's because I've been doing lots of sedation for colonoscopies and esophagogastroduodenoscopies (EGD) for which I use propofol/lidocaine only. When someone asks for anesthesia services, especially outside the operating room, what they're really asking for is someone who can give propofol to the point of loss of consciousness--hence the (new) term. Your heard it here first.

NYT: Sick and Scared, and Waiting, Waiting, Waiting

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NYT: Sick and Scared, and Waiting, Waiting, Waiting

Medicine from the patient's side. A must read article no matter what specialty you're in.

When can nursing mothers resume breastfeeding after surgery?

• Categories: Anesthesia practice, Anesthesia Tips
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When can nursing mothers resume breastfeeding after surgery?:

Studies are under way by the same group for other commonly used drugs. My advice to nursing patients is to pump and discard once, then resume normal breast feeding.

C. difficile Outbreaks, Anyone?

• Categories: Anesthesia practice
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Our hospital has pulled all 3M Avagard hand disinfectant from the operating rooms, preferring instead that surgeons go back to the old fashioned surgical hand scrub. At the same time, we are apparently seeing more nosocomial Clostridium difficile infections. C. diff. is not a reportable pathogen, and this was felt to contribute to the outbreak Canada experienced recently. Avagard does not inactivate C. diff. spores. Co-incidence? I don't think so.

The CDC page for healthcare providers on C. diff. provides an interesting nugget:

Has anyone else seen this at their facilities?

Obstetrical deaths in the UK--Anesthesia component

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Why Mothers Die 2000-2002 - Report on confidential enquiries into maternal deaths in the United Kingdom

Chapter 9--Anaesthesia

The anesthesia chapter concludes:

I would like to think that many of the problems pointed out in this report would not happen in the United States, but that would be intellectually dishonest. If you provide anesthesia for obstetrical patients as I do, it's worth reading over this report for the lessons that are applicable in the US.

"If you're wrong, I'll sue you."

• Categories: Anesthesia practice
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That's what the patient was overheard to say after I finished a discussion with her about why she would not need prophylactic antibiotics before a nasal procedure. Her medical history was significant only for a 'heart murmur' (which I could not auscultate). No workup or echocardiogram had been done to rule in a structural cardiac abnormality. The patient denied signs or symptoms of valvular heart disease including mitral valve prolapse, and had a very good exercise tolerance. I quoted the AHA Recommendations which, it turns out, admit that....

"If you're wrong, I'll sue you" was reportedly spoken by the patient after I had left the bedside. As I saw it, I had three choices:

1. Tell her I would not provide her an anesthetic for this elective surgery as she had revealed herself to be a litigious patient.
2. Reschedule her surgery after an echocardiogram had been performed to elucidate the origin of the murmur.
3. Give her the antibiotic and get on with things.

Part of why I had such a strong emotional reaction upon hearing this was almost certainly because I have been in practice over eight nearly nine years and have yet to be named in a suit (the average physician is sued once every eight years). And because some very talented surgeons have left Pennsylvania because of the malpractice environment (and have been replaced by considerably less talented surgeons).

After I talked it over with the surgeon (who asked me to proceed so as not to put him in a difficult position) I gave her the antibiotic and got on with things...but not until after I had listed for her every possible complication of both the antibiotic dose and the anesthetic she was about to receive, including brain damage and death.

Now, all the informed consent in the world isn't going to stop a patient from suing regardless of outcome if they want to sue. I decided to save my charm, humor, and best bedside manner for patients that have the good sense not to talk about bombs while they're waiting in line at airport security.

Discovery Health: Anesthesia (Reporting) Nightmares

• Categories: Anesthesia practice
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I watched 'Anesthesia Nightmares' on the Discovery Health channel last night (listing). As an anesthesiologist, the awareness and recall of surgery are of grave concern to me, so I tuned in for what I hoped would be an informative, informed, hour of Discovery Health television. What I saw amounted to fearmongering.

Let me state at the outset that I do not doubt the ordeals described by the victims interviewed in the show. Awareness and recall under anesthesia happen. How often they happen has recently been answered by an article titled The incidence of awareness during anesthesia: a multicenter United States study. The study was funded by the company that makes depth of anesthesia monitors (Aspect), but I can't find fault with their data:

Before I point out some of the specific information I disagree with, let me make a few general points.

I. Not every occurrence of awareness is the kind of 'anesthesia nightmare' described in the show. This should have been pointed out during the report. From the article referenced above:

Summary of Awareness Descriptions (n = 25)

II. We know the risk of awareness is higher in certain kinds of operations (trauma resuscitations, open heart surgery, and emergency cesarean sections are three that come to mind) and in certain kinds of patients (patient with significant coexisting medical conditions such as heart disease or renal failure). In those cases there is a trade-off between depth of anesthesia and patient well-being. There can also be awareness during an unanticipated difficult airway (the first dose of injected anesthetic begins to wear off before the inhaled anesthetic is started.

III. We sometimes are asked to do anesthetics which would not be our first choice. Certain orthopedic spine procedures require special monitoring which is in turn affected by anesthetic levels. We have to modify our preferred anesthetic to take into account this new requirement--and the risk of awareness is higher if we can't use inhaled agents, for example.

Let me now give some quotes from the show that I think are misleading and explain why I think so:

Narrator: "The gas was not working, but like all surgical patients, Joe had also been given a paralytic drug"

This is false. Most surgical patients do not receive a paralytic drug. Intra-abdominal, intrathoracic, intracranial cases do because the surgery could not be done without them, but that's not a majority of cases. We try to avoid giving paralytics unless they're clearly indicated.

Dr. Frank Sweeny: "There are a variety of theories about what anesthesia is, but really I can summarize it in three words: We Don't Know"

This is simply a poor choice of words on Dr. Sweeny's part or Discovery Health taking it his quote out of context. Although it is true we do not precisely understand the mechanisms of some anesthetics, we do know a great deal about how these drugs work as evidenced by the safe and uneventful conduct of the vast majority of anesthetics given each day.

Narrator: "Anesthesiologists have to find a delicate balance between three types of drugs: paralytics to prevent movement, analgesics to dull pain, and narcotics to induce unconsciousness"

Well, not quite. Anesthesiologist seek a balance between drugs that cause unconsciousness, amnesia, anxiolysis, attenuation of the stress response, and muscle relaxation (for a history, see this article). Narcotics are used to block pain and therefore attenuate the stress response (but so do drugs like beta blockers). Narcotics do not induce unconsciousness (very well). We use inhaled anesthetics (such successors to ether) and intravenous anesthetics (such as successors to sodium pentothal) for that. It is this line that makes me think that the creators of this show did not allow an anesthesiologist to screen the final product for accuracy.

Narrator: "What no one in the operating room realized is that the canisters of anesthetic gas were empty"

This can happen, but if the pre-anesthetic checklist is used properly, it won't. Checking anesthetic levels is on the checklist. In addition, one of our inhaled anesthetics (Desflurane) has a vaporizer with a built-in alarm for when the anesthetic level gets low that can then be refilled without having to turn the vaporizer off (thus eliminating the risk of forgetting to turn the vaporizer back on).

Narrator: "A muscle relaxant is used to keep the body still during surgery"

A muscle relaxant is used to relax (paralyze) the muscles. We keep the patient still by making sure they are sufficiently anesthetized. Reflexly giving more paralytic if a patient moves is the wrong response. First insure lack of awareness, lack of pain, adequate anesthetic levels, then consider re-dosing the muscle relaxant.

Narrator: "Studies have shown that mistakes happen in 3% of all operations."

That may be true, but it's far too vague to have any bearing here. Mistakes by whom? Of what magnitude? Did harm actually come to the patient?

Finally the show introduces the brain monitor called Bis (for Bispectral Index), and the person introducing it is a Dr. Don Mathews. What the series does not indicate is that Dr. Mathews is on the speakers buereau for Aspect medical, maker of the Bis monitor. Dr. Mathews narrates a case where the patient actually requires less anesthesia than he thought--and that's exactly my experience with the Bis monitor. After using it for several years, I have never deepened someone's anesthetic because of what the monitor showed, only lightened it. The Bis monitor, and others like it, is being studies intensely in the literature, but I don't think there's a consensus yet. Bis measures level of hypnosis. Not depth of anesthesia. Using Bis makes no difference in the incidence of painful awareness.

It's late and I want to get this posted, but reserve the right to add a Part II should the urge arise.

For more information, see the JCAHO Sentinel Event Alert on "Preventing, and managing the impact of, anesthesia awareness" published in October 2004.