Rapid Sequence

Surgical decision-making after SARS-CoV-2 infection is influenced by the presence of comorbidity, infection severity and whether the surgical problem is time-sensitive. This new paper utilised the OpenSAFELY database to look at practices and outcomes in England, and suggests that some patients can be safely operated within 2 weeks from infection. This podcast goes deeper into the associated issues and implications for clinicians, patients and hospitals. 

Detailed contemporary knowledge of the characteristics of the surgical population, national anaesthetic workload, anaesthetic techniques and behaviours are essential to monitor productivity, inform policy and direct research themes. Every 3–4 years, the Royal College of Anaesthetists, as part of its National Audit Projects (NAP), performs a snapshot activity survey in all UK hospitals delivering anaesthesia, collecting patient-level encounter data from all cases under the care of an anaesthetist. For this podcast, Tanya Selak speaks with the authors about their work and explores some of the trends from these new data.  Arguably the most important paper of 2023 so far and essential reading/listening for all!

This new paper from the AERATOR group examines the science around aerosol generation and awake tracheal intubation (ATI). Their study was performed on a single day during an ATI course on 12 anaesthetic trainees. They show that ATI without sedation generates high concentrations of respiratory aerosol. Professor Ross Hofmeyr talks to the authors about their study, its clinical implications and what the future holds for research in this area. 

We caught up with Dr Fiona Kelly, lead author of a new guideline from the Association of Anaesthetists and the Difficult Airway Society on human factors in anaesthesia. The guideline and narrative review were published and launched live at the Winter Scientific Meeting in London today and there are several actions that we can all take today to impact patient care.  Time to place less reliance on individual and team excellence to deliver high-quality patient care? We think so. Both papers are free to access and worth reading in full for all.

Pre-operative anaemia is common in patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery and associated with an increased risk of blood transfusion, hospital length of stay and postoperative complications. This podcast is all about a new secondary analysis of the PREVENTT study. We are delighted to be joined in Australia by three of the papers authors, Professor Toby Richards, Dr Anastazia Keegan and Professor Lachlan Miles. The aim of their analysis was to determine whether specific iron deficiency phenotypes derived clinical benefits from intravenous iron before major abdominal surgery compared with placebo.