Intraoperative Cardiac Arrest During Adult Liver Transplantation: Incidence and Risk Factor Analysis From 7 Academic Centers in the United States.

BACKGROUND: Intraoperative cardiac arrest (ICA) has a reported frequency of 1 in 10,000 anesthetics but has a much higher estimated incidence in orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Single-center studies of ICA in OLT are limited by small sample size that prohibits multivariable regression analysis of risks. METHODS: Utilizing data from 7 academic medical centers, we performed a retrospective, observational study of 5296 adult liver transplant recipients (18-80 years old) between 2000 and 2017 to identify the rate of ICA, associated risk factors, and outcomes. RESULTS: ICA occurred in 196 cases (3.7% 95% confidence interval [CI], 3.2-4.2) and mortality occurred in 62 patients (1.2%). The intraoperative mortality rate was 31.6% in patients who experienced ICA. In a multivariable generalized linear mixed model, ICA was associated with body mass index (BMI) <20 (odds ratio [OR]: 2.04, 95% CI, 1.05-3.98; P = .0386), BMI ≥40 (2.16 [1.12-4.19]; P = .022), Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score: (MELD 30-39: 1.75 [1.09-2.79], P = .02; MELD ≥40: 2.73 [1.53-4.85], P = .001), postreperfusion syndrome (PRS) (3.83 [2.75-5.34], P < .001), living donors (2.13 [1.16-3.89], P = .014), and reoperation (1.87 [1.13-3.11], P = .015). Overall 30-day and 1-year mortality were 4.18% and 11.0%, respectively. After ICA, 30-day and 1-year mortality were 43.9% and 52%, respectively, compared to 2.6% and 9.3% without ICA. CONCLUSIONS: We established a 3.7% incidence of ICA and a 1.2% incidence of intraoperative mortality in liver transplantation and confirmed previously identified risk factors for ICA including BMI, MELD score, PRS, and reoperation and identified new risk factors including living donor and length of surgery in this multicenter retrospective cohort. ICA, while rare, is associated with high intraoperative mortality, and future research must focus on therapy to reduce the incidence of ICA.

Association of preanesthesia hypertension with adverse outcomes.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the incidence of preanesthesia hypertension, case cancellation for hypertension, and association with postoperative outcomes. DESIGN: Retrospective descriptive, univariate, and multivariate analyses of electronic anesthesia and hospital records. SETTING: A large urban academic medical center. PARTICIPANTS: Adult elective surgical patients with preinduction blood pressure (BP) >140/90 mmHg during calendar years 2002 to 2008. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Preinduction hypertension was present in 21,126 of 209,985 (10%) patients, and the incidence of adverse outcomes (elevated troponin or in-hospital death) was 1.3% overall and 2.8% for the subset of patients with baseline systolic BP >200 mmHg. Independent predictors of adverse outcome included increased baseline systolic BP, intraoperative diastolic BP <85 mmHg, increased intraoperative heart rate, blood transfusion, and anesthetic technique, controlling for standard risk factors. A total of 69 hypertensive patients (0.3%) had surgery cancelled before the induction of anesthesia; 29 of these cancellations occurred among the 1,330 patients with baseline SBP >200 mmHg (2.2%). Among 42 "cancelled" patients who returned for surgery hours to years later, the average preinduction BP was 192/102 mmHg, and adverse cardiovascular outcomes occurred in 4.8%. CONCLUSIONS: The increasing severity of preinduction hypertension was an independent risk factor for postoperative myocardial injury/infarction or in-hospital death. Only a small percentage of cases with patients presenting with severe hypertension were cancelled, and the delay of surgery did not result in interval normalization of blood pressure.

Intraoperative carbon dioxide management and outcomes.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Intraoperative hyperventilation to induce hypocapnia has historically been common practice and has physiological effects that may be detrimental. In contrast, hypercapnia has effects that may be beneficial. As these effects may influence postoperative recovery, we investigated the association between variations in intraoperative carbon dioxide and length of hospital stay in patients who had elective colon resections and hysterectomies. METHODS: Data were extracted from electronic records for elective colon resections and hysterectomies done from 2002 to 2008. Patients were divided into four groups based on surgical procedure and use of laparoscopic technique. Parameters extracted for analysis included mean end-tidal carbon dioxide (EtCO2) during the surgical procedure as well as others previously purported to affect postoperative outcomes. In-hospital length of stay (LOS) was determined from administrative records and was used as the independent outcome variable. For each group, Poisson regression analysis was performed to find factors that were independently associated with the outcome. RESULTS: A total of 3421 case records in our database met inclusion criteria. Median EtCO2 was 31 mmHg. Median LOS was 7 and 5 days for open and laparoscopic colon resections, and 3 and 2 days for open and laparoscopic hysterectomies, respectively. Regression analysis revealed a statistically significant independent association between higher EtCO2 and reduced LOS for colon resection and open hysterectomy. CONCLUSION: There is a significant association between higher intraoperative EtCO2 and shorter LOS after colon resection and open hysterectomy. The common practice of inducing hypocapnia may be deleterious, and maintaining normocapnia or permitting hypercapnia may improve clinical outcomes.

Anesthetic experience with endovascular aortic aneurysm repair.

BACKGROUND: We endeavored to characterize the anesthesia experience with endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) at a large academic medical center in the United States. METHODS: A retrospective review of electronic medical records was conducted for all patients undergoing elective EVAR from 2002 to 2007 in a large academic medical center. RESULTS: A total of 522 cases met inclusion criteria, with 4% of cases using general anesthesia (GA), 92% regional anesthesia (RA), and 4% local anesthesia (LA). There was no statistically significant difference between the groups for duration of surgery or in-hospital mortality. In-hospital length of stay was longer for GA than LA or RA. Four cases were converted to open repair. Two mortalities occurred during the perioperative period (0.4% of cases). CONCLUSIONS: The vast majority of EVAR were successfully performed under RA, involved mild blood loss, involved infrequent need for conversion to GA, and resulted in brief in-hospital length of stay and low mortality rate.

A comparison of transmittance and reflectance pulse oximetry during vascular surgery.

BACKGROUND: New reflectance pulse oximetry probes placed on the forehead may be an improvement over transmittance probes placed on a finger, toe, or earlobe in patients with compromised perfusion. We compared the reliability and accuracy of the 2 types of probes in patients undergoing vascular surgery. METHODS: Patients with peripheral vascular disease undergoing vascular surgery under general anesthesia were monitored with both a transmittance earlobe probe and a reflectance forehead probe. Spo(2) was recorded continuously from both probes, and arterial blood gas samples were analyzed when clinically indicated. The average values from both probes over each minute were compared using Bland-Altman analysis. RESULTS: Twenty patients were included yielding a total of 3993 1-min averaged data pairs. Neither probe failed to report a value for more than 1 min. A Bland-Altman plot showed the limits of agreement between the probes of -4.0% to +2.6%. Twenty-eight arterial blood samples were analyzed for 14 patients and Sao(2) closely matched both Spo(2) probe values at the time of sampling. Compared with Sao(2), analysis demonstrated limits of agreement of -4.7% to 6.1% for ear and -3.3% to 3.4% for forehead sites. CONCLUSIONS: The new reflectance forehead Spo(2) probe tested has acceptable agreement with the older transmittance probe placed on the earlobe for pulse oximetry within typical ranges of Spo(2) in patients undergoing vascular surgery.

Development and implementation of a pediatric cardiac anesthesia/intensive care database.

Systematic collection and electronic storage of data can assist in improving quality and efficiency of patient care and can provide a data set to interrogate for subsequent performance improvement and clinical research purposes. In this article, an electronic perioperative pediatric cardiac surgery database to be used by a multidisciplinary care team was designed, developed, and implemented. Technical goals for the design included low cost, rapid development and implementation, adequate security, and potential for internal and external distribution. Implementation of the described database has proved to be invaluable for quality assurance and statistical analysis of data relevant to patient care. From the overall positive experience, it was concluded that the electronic data management does not always need major cost investment.

The effect of an interactive visual reminder in an anesthesia information management system on timeliness of prophylactic antibiotic administration.

BACKGROUND: To reduce the incidence of surgical site infection, preoperative antibiotics should be administered within 60 min before surgical incision. The purpose of this study was to determine whether adding a visual interactive electronic reminder with a message related to antibiotic administration to our anesthesia information management system would increase compliance with prophylactic antibiotic guidelines. METHODS: We retrospectively studied electronic anesthesia records of ambulatory and day-of-surgery admission surgical cases in which one of our usual prophylactic antibiotics was administered from June 2004 through December 2005, an interval that includes cases both before and after the February 2005 implementation of the new reminder. Compliance was defined as documented antibiotic administration within 60 min before the surgical procedure starting time. Noncompliant cases were divided into those in which dosing was too early or too late. RESULTS: Compliance for 4987 cases before and 9478 cases after the reminder was implemented increased from 82.4% to 89.1% (P < 0.01). This increase was found both for attending anesthesiologists assisted by a resident or nurse anesthetist (82.9% before vs 89.1% after, P < 0.01) and for attending anesthesiologists working alone (80.1% before vs 89.3% after, P < 0.01). The improvement in compliance was associated with a decrease in the incidence of antibiotics administered too late (i.e., after surgical incision) (15.2% before vs 8.1% after, P < 0.01), but with no significant change in the incidence of antibiotics administered too early (i.e., more than 60 min before skin incision) (2.4% before vs 2.8% after, P = 0.07). CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of a visual interactive electronic reminder regarding administration of preoperative antibiotics in an anesthesia information management system was associated with a sustained increase in compliance with surgical prophylactic antibiotic administration timing guidelines.