Large Aerodigestive Tract Foreign Body Extraction Complicated by End-Stage Dementia.

A foreign body in the upper aerodigestive tract can be life-threatening. It is especially challenging for surgeons and anesthesiologists working in a limited shared workspace. A case is presented of an 83-year-old woman with end-stage dementia afflicted with oral fixation as defined as overeating or putting objects in the mouth other than food. She appeared asymptomatic although she had altered baseline mentation and was found to have ingested a large foreign object. This case provides an opportunity to discuss the unique challenges of performing anesthesia on patients undergoing the extraction of a large upper aerodigestive tract foreign body, complicated by end-stage dementia.

Development and Testing of Screen-Based and Psychometric Instruments for Assessing Resident Performance in an Operating Room Simulator.

Introduction. Medical simulators are used for assessing clinical skills and increasingly for testing hypotheses. We developed and tested an approach for assessing performance in anesthesia residents using screen-based simulation that ensures expert raters remain blinded to subject identity and experimental condition. Methods. Twenty anesthesia residents managed emergencies in an operating room simulator by logging actions through a custom graphical user interface. Two expert raters rated performance based on these entries using custom Global Rating Scale (GRS) and Crisis Management Checklist (CMC) instruments. Interrater reliability was measured by calculating intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), and internal consistency of the instruments was assessed with Cronbach's alpha. Agreement between GRS and CMC was measured using Spearman rank correlation (SRC). Results. Interrater agreement (GRS: ICC = 0.825, CMC: ICC = 0.878) and internal consistency (GRS: alpha = 0.838, CMC: alpha = 0.886) were good for both instruments. Subscale analysis indicated that several instrument items can be discarded. GRS and CMC scores were highly correlated (SRC = 0.948). Conclusions. In this pilot study, we demonstrated that screen-based simulation can allow blinded assessment of performance. GRS and CMC instruments demonstrated good rater agreement and internal consistency. We plan to further test construct validity of our instruments by measuring performance in our simulator as a function of training level.

The Ryder Cognitive Aid Checklist for Trauma Anesthesia.

Despite mixed results regarding the clinical utility of checklists, the anesthesia community is increasingly interested in advancing research around this important topic. Although several checklists have been developed to address routine perioperative care, few checklists in the anesthesia literature specifically target the management of trauma patients. We adapted a recently published "trauma and emergency checklist" for the initial phase of resuscitation and anesthesia of critically ill trauma patients into an applicable perioperative cognitive aid in the form of a pictogram that can be downloaded by the medical community. The Ryder Cognitive Aid Checklist for Trauma Anesthesia is a letter-sized, full-color document consisting of 2 pages and 5 sections. This cognitive aid describes the essential steps to be performed: before patient arrival to the hospital, on patient arrival to the hospital, during the initial assessment and management, during the resuscitation phase, and for postoperative care. A brief online survey is also presented to obtain feedback for improvement of this tool. The variability in utility of cognitive aids may be because of the specific clinical task being performed, the skill level of the individuals using the cognitive aid, overall quality of the cognitive aid, or organizational challenges. Once optimized, future research should be focused at ensuring successful implementation and customization of this tool.