Anesthesiology Commons^™

Quality Assurance Audit In Adult Cardiac Anaesthesia, Syed Shabbir Ahmed, Mohammad Hamid, Faisal Junejo

Department of Anaesthesia

Objective: To assess different anaesthesia-related quality indicators during adult cardiac surgery.
Methods: The prospective clinical audit was conducted at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, from October 2016 to March 2017, and comprised all adult patients scheduled for cardiac surgery. Different anaesthesia-related quality indicators were observed during the pre-induction phase, before the cardiopulmonary bypass, during the procedure, and post-surgery till the transfer from the operating room to the cardiac intensive care unit. Data was analysed using SPSS 19.
Results: Of the 264 patients, 217(82.2%) had complete record; 160(73.7%) males and 57(26.3%) females. The overall mean age was 56.56±12.46 years. In …

A Multidisciplinary Approach To Triage Patients With Breast Disease During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Experience From A Tertiary Care Center In The Developing World, Abida K. Sattar, Hania Shahzad, Adnan Abdul Jabbar, Azmina Tajdin Valimohammad, Sadaf Khan, Yasmin Vellani, Romana Idrees, Nasir Ali, Imrana Masroor, Humera Saeed, Gulzar S. Lakhani, Nadia Ayoub, Atif Waqar, Muhammad Zia-Ul Islam, Salman Kirmani, Asad Latif, Ather Enam

Section of General Surgery

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has created a need to prioritize care because of limitation of resources. Owing to the heterogeneity and high prevalence of breast cancers, the need to prioritize care in this vulnerable population is essential. While various medical societies have published recommendations to manage breast disease during the COVID-19 pandemic, most are focused on the Western world and do not necessarily address the challenges of a resource-limited setting.
Aim: In this article, we describe our institutional approach for prioritizing care for patients presenting with breast disease.
Methods and results: The breast disease management guidelines were developed and approved …

Epidemiological Characteristics, Ventilator Management, And Clinical Outcome In Patients Receiving Invasive Ventilation In Intensive Care Units From 10 Asian Middle-Income Countries (Provent-Imic): An International, Multicenter, Prospective Study, Luigi Pisani, Anna Geke Algera, Ary Serpa Neto, Areef Ahsan, Abigail Beane, Kaweesak Chittawatanarat, Abul Faiz, Rashan Haniffa, Seyed Mohammadreza Hashemian, Madiha Hashmi

Department of Anaesthesia

Epidemiology, ventilator management, and outcome in patients receiving invasive ventilation in intensive care units (ICUs) in middle-income countries are largely unknown. PRactice of VENTilation in Middle-income Countries is an international multicenter 4-week observational study of invasively ventilated adult patients in 54 ICUs from 10 Asian countries conducted in 2017/18. Study outcomes included major ventilator settings (including tidal volume [V T] and positive end-expiratory pressure [PEEP]); the proportion of patients at risk for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), according to the lung injury prediction score (LIPS), or with ARDS; the incidence of pulmonary complications; and ICU mortality. In 1,315 patients included, …

Frequency Of Immediate Neonatal Complications (Hypoglycemia And Neonatal Jaundice) In Late Preterm And Term Neonates, Muhammad Salman, Heeranand Rathore, Shabina Ariff, Rashid Ali, Ausaf Ahmed Khan, Muhammad Nasir

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

Background: Evidence suggests that neonates born at 34-36 weeks should not be considered full-term neonates, given the magnitude of morbidities they experience compared with term infants. Neonates born at 34 to 36 weeks are at increased risk for early illness such as hypoglycemia and hyperbilirubinemia compared to term infants.
Objective: This study's objective was to determine the frequency of immediate neonatal complications (hypoglycemia and neonatal jaundice) in late preterm and term neonates.
Subjects and methods: A serial descriptive case study was conducted at the private tertiary care hospital. Random samplings were taken, and the sample size was calculated on Epi …

A Randomized Trial Of Manual Phone Calls Versus Automated Text Messages For Peripheral Nerve Block Follow-Ups., Gavyn Ooi, Eric S. Schwenk, Marc C. Torjman, Kent Berg

Department of Anesthesiology Faculty Papers

Mobile phone applications (apps) have been used for patient follow-up in the postoperative period, specifically to assess for complications and patient satisfaction. Few studies have evaluated their use in regional anesthesia. The objective of this study was to compare follow-up response rates using manual phone calls versus an automated patient outreach (APO) app for peripheral nerve block patients. We hypothesized that the response rate would be higher in the APO group. A mobile app, "JeffAnesthesia," was developed, which sends notifications to patients to answer survey questions in the app. We randomly assigned patients who received peripheral nerve blocks for postoperative …

Anesthetic Considerations In A Patient With Lvad And Covid-19 Undergoing Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgery, R. R. Sikachi, D. Anca

Journal Articles

© 2021 Increased survival with left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) has led to a large number of patients with LVADs presenting for noncardiac surgeries (NCS). With studies showing that a trained noncardiac anesthesiologist can safely manage these patients when they present for NCS, it is vital that all anesthesiologists understand the LVAD physiology and its implications in various surgeries. This is even more relevant during the current pandemic in which these complex cardiopulmonary interactions may be even more challenging in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The authors describe a case of a patient with COVID-19 with an LVAD who …

Child Health And The Implementation Of Community And District-Management Empowerment For Scale-Up (Codes) In Uganda: A Randomised Controlled Trial, Peter Waiswa, Flavia Mpanga, Danstan Bagenda, Rornald Muhumuza Kananura, Thomas O'Connell, Dorcus Kiwanuka Henriksson, Theresa Diaz, Florence Ayebare, Anne Ruhweza Katahoire, Eric Ssegujja, Anthony Mbonye, Stefan Swartling Peterson

Journal Articles: Anesthesiology

INTRODUCTION: Uganda's district-level administrative units buttress the public healthcare system. In many districts, however, local capacity is incommensurate with that required to plan and implement quality health interventions. This study investigates how a district management strategy informed by local data and community dialogue influences health services.

METHODS: A 3-year randomised controlled trial (RCT) comprised of 16 Ugandan districts tested a management approach, Community and District-management Empowerment for Scale-up (CODES). Eight districts were randomly selected for each of the intervention and comparison areas. The approach relies on a customised set of data-driven diagnostic tools to identify and resolve health system bottlenecks. …

A Comprehensive Study To Delineate The Role Of An Extracellular Vesicle-Associated Microrna-29a In Chronic Methamphetamine Use Disorder, Subhash Chand, Austin Gowen, Mason Savine, Dalia Moore, Alexander Clark, Wendy Huynh, Niming Wu, Katherine Odegaard, Lucas Weyrich, Rick A. Bevins, Howard S. Fox, Gurudutt Pendyala, Sowmya V. Yelamanchili

Journal Articles: Anesthesiology

Extracellular vesicles (EVs), which express a repertoire of cargo molecules (cf. proteins, microRNA, lipids, etc.), have been garnering a prominent role in the modulation of several cellular processes. Here, using both non-human primate and rodent model systems, we provide evidence that brain-derived EV (BDE) miRNA, miR-29a-3p (mir-29a), is significantly increased during chronic methamphetamine (MA) exposure. Further, miR-29a levels show significant increase both with drug-seeking and reinstatement in a rat MA self-administration model. We also show that EV-associated miR-29a is enriched in EV pool comprising of small EVs and exomeres and further plays a critical role in MA-induced inflammation and synaptodendritic …

A Holistic Systems Approach To Characterize The Impact Of Pre- And Post-Natal Oxycodone Exposure On Neurodevelopment And Behavior, Katherine E. Odegaard, Victoria L. Schaal, Alexander R. Clark, Sneh Koul, Jagadesan Sankarasubramanian, Zhiqiu Xia, Melissa Mellon, Mariano Uberti, Yutong Liu, Andrew Stothert, Matthew J. Van Hook, Han-Jun Wang, Chittibabu Guda, Steven J. Lisco, Gurudutt Pendyala, Sowmya V. Yelamanchili

Journal Articles: Anesthesiology

Background: Increased risk of oxycodone (oxy) dependency during pregnancy has been associated with altered behaviors and cognitive deficits in exposed offspring. However, a significant knowledge gap remains regarding the effect of in utero and postnatal exposure on neurodevelopment and subsequent behavioral outcomes. Methods: Using a preclinical rodent model that mimics oxy exposure in utero (IUO) and postnatally (PNO), we employed an integrative holistic systems biology approach encompassing proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (¹H-MRS), electrophysiology, RNA-sequencing, and Von Frey pain testing to elucidate molecular and behavioral changes in the exposed offspring during early neurodevelopment as well as adulthood. Results: ^{1 …}

Integrated Systems Analysis Of Mixed Neuroglial Cultures Proteome Post Oxycodone Exposure, Rahul Guda, Katherine E. Odegaard, Chengxi Tan, Victoria L. Schaal, Sowmya V. Yelamanchili, Gurudutt Pendyala

Journal Articles: Anesthesiology

Opioid abuse has become a major public health crisis that affects millions of individuals across the globe. This widespread abuse of prescription opioids and dramatic increase in the availability of illicit opioids have created what is known as the opioid epidemic. Pregnant women are a particularly vulnerable group since they are prescribed for opioids such as morphine, buprenorphine, and methadone, all of which have been shown to cross the placenta and potentially impact the developing fetus. Limited information exists regarding the effect of oxycodone (oxy) on synaptic alterations. To fill this knowledge gap, we employed an integrated system approach to …

Using The Memorial Sloan Kettering Frailty Index To Identify Patients At High Risk For Postoperative Intensive Care Unit Admission, Specialized Advanced Care Unit Admission, And 30-Day Readmission, Timothy J. Donoghue

Theses and Dissertations

Frailty is roughly defined as an accumulation of physiological, emotional, cognitive, and social deficits that impair a person’s response to stressful events. A frailty diagnosis has been associated with poor outcomes following surgical procedures. Cancer surgical patients aged 65 or older represent a vulnerable population susceptible to being frail and the potential associated complications that can accompany frailty. Measuring frailty is an objective risk assessment that identifies increased risk better than age or American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status (ASA-PS) score such that frailty can independently predict poor surgical outcomes.

Frailty is not specifically a result of having cancer, disability, …

Determining The Disability Status Of Adult Patients Post General Intensive Care Unit (Icu) Discharge At The Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi Using The World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0(Whodas)., Khadija Ahmed

Master of Medicine in Anaesthesiology

Background: Critical care has evolved throughout the years since the polio outbreak when the first ICU was set up in the USA. There is an increasing number of survivors of critical illness. The survivors have been shown to have prolonged physical, cognitive, and psychological impairments. There is no current information on the status of this patient post-ICU in Africa. Objectives: To measure the disability status of adult patients post general Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Discharge Using WHODAS 2.0.To determine the factors associated with the degree of disability. Methodology: This was a cross-sectional analytical study. Patients admitted to AKUHN ICU, were …

Post Operative Sore Throat: Comparison Between Macintosh Versus Video Laryngoscope In Patients Intubated By Trainee Anaesthetists - A Randomised Control Trial, Amin Ahmed Kapadia, Faraz Shafiq, Amir Raza

Department of Anaesthesia

Objectives: Postoperative sore throat (POST) is a common complication related to endotracheal intubation. The aim of this study was to compare the incidence of POST in patients intubated by trainee anaesthetist using Video Laryngoscope™ (VDL) or Conventional Macintosh Laryngoscope (CL).
Methods: Total 110 patient scheduled for elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy were included from main operating room of Aga Khan University Hospital between June 2017-2018. The standardized perioperative protocol was used for general anaesthesia. Selected patients were randomly allocated into conventional laryngoscopy (CL) group or video laryngoscopy (VDL) group. The evaluation of sore throat was done at 1st, 12th and 24th hour …

Evaluating The Clinical Utility Of A Novel Electroencephalography System For Assessing Perioperative Neurocognition In Older Surgical Patients, Lloyd H. Barnwell Iii

Theses and Dissertations

Postoperative delirium (POD) is a public health and research priority (American Society of Anesthesiologists, 2019). POD is a risk factor for long-term neurocognitive decline, and the rate of decline is directly proportional to the severity of POD (Vasunilashorn et al., 2018). Baseline cognitive function is a strong, independent predictor for POD (Culley et al., 2017). The International Perioperative Neurotoxicity Working Group recommends baseline cognitive function be assessed for older patients prior to surgery and anesthesia (Berger, et al., 2018). Perioperative cognitive screening tools trialed in anesthesia are not routinely incorporated into clinical practice related to validity, reliability, or practicality problems …

A Right Para-Tracheal Mass Extending Into The Anterior Mediastinum: An Anesthetic Management Conundrum, Andres Bacigalupo Landa, Kritika Krishnamurthy, Howard S Goldman

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The anesthetic management of patients with a mediastinal mass represent a challenge due to the potential for difficult ventilation and intubation, as well as the risk of cardiovascular collapse upon induction of general anesthesia. Different strategies and alternatives have been described. We present the case of a 70-year-old man with a right para-tracheal mass extending into the anterior mediastinum with 90% mid-tracheal lumen obstruction who was successfully managed with venous-venous extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) during mass debulking and tracheal stent placement.

Influence Of Telephone Preoperative Evaluations On Patient Medication Compliance On Day Of Surgery, Emmanuel Magsino, Michael Jung, Olga Suarez Md

Graduate Research Posters

Patient compliance with medication instructions on day of surgery (DOS) is an important part of the preoperative assessment, as failure to comply with these may lead to serious perioperative consequences. Prior studies have shown that compliance increases with multimodal interventions. However due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, many in-person visits transitioned to telephone visits and providers had to rely on patients to follow solely verbal instructions.

To determine medication compliance, this study compared the medication instructions provided by the VCU Preoperative Assessment Communication and Education Clinic, per chart review, with each patient’s own report of which medications they took on …

Sevoflurane: Practice Change Integration Quality Improvement For Pharmacoeconomic Accountability, Kelly Moore Meyers

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Background: Pharmacoeconomic accountability is increasingly of concern to patients, institutions, and healthcare payors alike. Annual sevoflurane expenditure at a large university hospital exceeds $300,000 (personal communication, Eric Likar). Sevoflurane is a liquid, volatile anesthetic delivered from a vaporizer, through a breathing circuit to a patient. Multiple studies focused on reducing sevoflurane use note significant cost savings were attained with a variety of techniques. Moreover, using less sevoflurane reduces the environmental impact of volatile agents which are potent greenhouse gases. Through simple interventions, such as a brief staff education and reminders, Lethbridge et al. (2007) demonstrated over a fifty-percent reduction in …

Enhancing The Efficiency Of Bag Mask Ventilation: New Method, Muhammad Irfan Ul Haq

Department of Anaesthesia

No abstract provided.

Opioid Free Anesthesia, Sarah Medina

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Patients undergoing surgery are often given opioids intraoperatively. Administration of opioids is associated with untoward side effects that include nausea, respiratory depression, constipation, ileus, hyperalgesia, prolonged length of stay, and the potential for dependence (Garimella & Cellini, 2013). Emerging research on the topic of opioid-free anesthesia (OFA) is available and indicates several benefits of OFA, including reduction in postoperative pain, reduction in postoperative nausea and vomiting, reduction in postoperative shivering, and improved oxygen saturation levels (Mulier et al., 2018). This quality improvement project aimed to advance anesthesia providers' understanding of OFA by creating an OFA guideline and providing a learning …

Transversus Abdominis Plane Block As A Sole Anesthetic Technique For Open Appendectomy In Patient With Treacher Collins Syndrome: A Case Report, Khalid Maudood Siddiqui, Muhammad Asghar Ali, Bushra Salim

Department of Anaesthesia

Patients with Treacher Collins syndrome (TCS) present serious challenges to anesthetist in securing of airway; upper airway obstruction and difficult tracheal intubation are considered complex entity in these patients. This case report describes the significance of transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block as a sole anesthetic choice in appendectomy where airway management can be avoided. A 17-year-old boy, known case of TCS, presented with acute appendicitis underwent emergency laparotomy. Surgery was successfully performed by TAP block with dexmedetomidine infusion. Open appendectomy can be performed successfully in certain circumstances under TAP block with adjunctive use of dexmedetomidine infusion where airway handling is …