Ilana I. Logvinov

Anesthesiology residents' and nurse anesthetists' perceptions of effective clinical faculty supervision by anesthesiologists.

BACKGROUND:Often anesthesia care is provided by nonfaculty anesthesia providers (e.g., anesthesiology residents and certified registered nurse anesthetists [CRNAs]) under the guidance of faculty anesthesiologists. Performance appraisal of faculty anesthesiologists should therefore include evaluation of this guidance. METHODS:Residents and CRNAs from 3 teaching hospitals gave their “impression of 9 attributes of the hypothetical supervising anesthesiologist who meets … expectations … not … who exceeds expectations or whose activity is below … expectations.” Scores were based on the anesthesiologist working with the respondent, not others. A 4-point scale (e.g., 1 = never, 2 = rarely, 3 = frequently, and 4 = always) was used, and the mean was calculated. RESULTS:The participation rate was 51% among CRNAs (N = 153) and 58% among resident physicians (N = 47). There was no association between years since the start of training and supervision scores that met expectations among CRNAs (Kendall &tgr;b = 0.01; 95% confidence interval [CI], −0.13 to +0.10; P = 0.90) or residents (&tgr;b = 0.03; 95% CI, −0.16 to +0.23; P = 0.77). Most CRNAs (67%) and residents (94%) perceived that supervision that met their expectations was at least “frequent” (score ≥3.0) (both P < 0.0001). The mean ± SD of supervision scores that met expectations was 3.14 ± 0.42 for CRNAs versus 3.40 ± 0.30 for residents. The CRNAs’ score mean was 0.26 less than that of residents (P < 0.0001; 95% CI, 0.15 to 0.37 less). There were 30% of CRNAs with scores larger than the residents’ mean. CONCLUSIONS:Most CRNAs and residents at 3 teaching hospitals considered faculty guidance that meets expectations to be at least “frequent,” regardless of years in practice.

Ultrasound-guided transversus abdominis plane blocks for patients undergoing laparoscopic hand-assisted nephrectomy: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial.

Postoperative pain is a common complaint following living kidney donation or tumor resection using the laparoscopic hand-assisted technique. To evaluate the potential analgesic benefit of transversus abdominis plane blocks, we conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in 21 patients scheduled to undergo elective living-donor nephrectomy or single-sided nephrectomy for tumor. Patients were randomized to receive either 20 mL of 0.5% ropivacaine or 20 mL of 0.9% saline bilaterally to the transversus abdominis plane under ultrasound guidance. We found that transversus abdominis plane blocks reduced overall pain scores at 24 hours, with a trend toward decreased total morphine consumption. Nausea, vomiting, sedation, and time to discharge were not significantly different between the two study groups.

Survey of the National Drug Shortage Effect on Anesthesia and Patient Safety: A Patient Perspective.

BACKGROUND:There are few data on patients’ desire to be informed of drug shortages before elective surgery. We surveyed patients who had previously undergone laparoscopic cholecystectomy for their opinions. METHODS:Nine hundred forty-nine Mayo Clinic patients were invited to participate in the survey. The postal survey posed a hypothetical surgical scenario and requested answers regarding the desire to be informed and to postpone scheduled surgery because of neostigmine shortage. Comparison was made with Canadian patients from a hospital in Ontario. RESULTS:Most of the 256 respondents wanted “to be told by the anesthesia doctor about the neostigmine shortage” if there were “slight differences” in side effects between the drug combinations (P < 0.0001). The percentage of patients wanting to know was 76.2% (95% confidence interval, 70.5%–81.3%). Secondary analyses tested the validity and reliability of the survey. With each increase in the differences in substituted drug’s side effects, there was a progressive increase in the patients’ desire for information (P < 0.0001; 73.2%, 76.2%, and 95.7% of 246, 256, and 253 respondents, respectively) and preference for delaying surgery (P< 0.0001; 33.6%, 39.4%, and 80.9% of 238, 246, and 241 respondents, respectively). There was no association with respondents’ sex (P = 0.19), age (P = 0.76), educational level (P = 0.39), or country (United States versus Canada [n = 58]; P = 0.87). CONCLUSIONS:The majority (>50%) of surveyed patients want to be informed of drug shortages that might affect their care.