Anesthesia training: Are we doing enough in three years? Cross-sectional study

Introduction: The mínimum number of procedures required to be performed during anesthesia training has not been officially defined in Colombia. Although a number is no guarantee of acquired competencies, it does indicate the level of opportunity offered by the different programs. This study describes the practical training afforded to residents in a graduate anesthesia program in Colombia, and compares its results with international standards. Objective: Describe exposure to procedures performed by residents enrolled in a three-year anesthesia specialization program in Colombia between 2015 and 2020, and compare with the standards proposed by ASCOFAME and ACGME. Methods: Descriptive, cross-sectional study which included residents who did their specialization in a Colombian anesthesia program between 2015 and 2020. Complexity, anesthesia techniques, invasive monitoring and airway approach were described. Finally a descriptive comparison was made with the published references of the Colombian Association of Medical Schools (ASCOFAME) and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). Results: The results for 10 residents were included. Each resident had a median of 978 cases (IQR 942-1120), corresponding to 25 surgical specialties, the most frequent being general surgery (18%), orthopedics (16%), pediatric surgery (19%), and obstetrics (10.8%). According to the American Society of Anesthesiology (ASA) classification, the majority of patients were ASA II (39.63%) and ASA III (28.4%). Adequate exposure was achieved in 11 of the 15 categories proposed by ACGME and in 6 of the 15 proposed by ASCOFAME. Conclusions: A detailed description of the practice component acquired by the residents during their three years of training was obtained. This baseline provides insight into the national landscape and allows to describe the relationship with international standards.

Introducción: En Colombia no se encuentra oficialmente definido el número mínimo de procedimientos que se deben realizar durante el entrenamiento en anestesiología. Aunque el número no garantiza la adquisición de competencias de la especialidad, sí es un indicador de la oportunidad ofertada por parte de los programas. Este estudio describe el entrenamiento práctico que tienen los médicos residentes en un programa de posgrado de anestesiología en Colombia y compara sus resultados con estándares internacionales. Objetivo: Describir la exposición a procedimientos realizados por los médicos residentes de un programa de especialización en anestesiología de tres años en Colombia, entre 2015 y 2020, y compararlo con los estándares propuestos por ASCOFAME y el ACGME. Métodos: Estudio descriptivo de corte transversal; se incluyeron los residentes que cursaron su programa de especialidad en un programa colombiano de anestesiología entre 2015 y 2020. Se describieron la complejidad, técnicas anestésicas, monitoría invasiva y abordaje de la vía aérea. Finalmente, se compararon los resultados de manera descriptiva con lo referenciado por la Asociación Colombiana de Facultades de Medicina y el Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). Resultados: Se incluyeron los resultados de 10 médicos residentes. El número de casos por residente tuvo una mediana de 978 casos (RIQ942-1120), correspondientes a 25 especialidades quirúrgicas; cirugía general (18 %), ortopedia (16 %), cirugía pediátrica (19 %) y obstetricia (10,8 %) fueron las más frecuentes. Según la clasificación de la Sociedad Americana de Anestesiología (ASA), la mayoría de los pacientes tenían ASA 2 (39,63 %), ASA 3 (28,4 %). Se alcanzó una exposición adecuada en 11 de las 15 categorías propuestas por el ACGME y en 6 de las 15 propuestas por la Asociación Colombiana de Facultades de Medicina. Conclusiones: Se obtuvo una descripción detallada del aspecto práctico de los residentes de anestesiología durante sus tres años de formación. Esta línea de base permite ampliar el panorama a escala nacional y describir la relación con estándares internacionales.

ECPR for prolonged Pediatric Cardiac Arrest, an outcome without major neurological compromise.

Pediatric in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) has been reported in 1-3% of pediatric intensive care unit (ICU) admissions and up to 6% of children admissions to the cardiac ICU. In the last 25 years, the survival to hospital discharge after pediatric IHCA has improved from 9% to 13.7% up to 35%. The improvement in outcomes was attributed in part to the application of ECMO as a rescue strategy when prolonged conventional CPR cannot restore spontaneous circulation. We report a case of a 4-month-old patient with a history of ventricular and septal defects, with left to right shunt and enlargement of left heart chambers that underwent surgery for the closure of the atrial and septal defects, and experienced complications that led to the use of ECMO in response to a prolonged cardiac arrest.

Long Term Veno-Pulmonary Arterial Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation as Bridge To Lung Transplantation And Its Challenges: A Case Report.

We present a case of a patient with acute respiratory distress syndrome due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection who underwent an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) run of 8 months with various configuration changes, including off-label use of cannulas. The patient eventually underwent successful double lung transplantation after a follow-up of 17 months, demonstrating the successful application of a hybrid approach and careful monitoring in the face of supply shortages during the pandemic. This case highlights the challenges faced by ECMO and transplantation centers during the pandemic and the importance of careful communication and planning to optimize patient outcomes.

Utilidad del Ultrasonido en Reanimación / Utility of ultrasound in resuscitation

Ultrasound has become a diagnostic and therapeutic tool for critical situations. This article reviews the development of ultrasound with respect to critical events and its impact on reducing morbidity and mortality from abdominal and chest trauma, on the recognition of reversible causes of pulseless electrical activity, on decision-making in acute respiratory failure, and on predicting survival and reducing complications associated with invasive procedures. We revised how ultrasounds performed by non-experts with a minimum of training and focused on recognizing specific situations have a good degree of correlation with expert conducted ultrasounds. Some protocols of ultrasound in resuscitation described in the literature are reviewed and a description is made of the most relevant variables in critical situations, including left ventricular function, volume responsiveness, cardiac tamponade, right ventricular dilatation, and pulmonary evaluation.

El ultrasonido se ha convertido en una herramienta diagnóstica y terapéutica en situaciones críticas. Este artículo revisa la evolución del ultrasonido en eventos críticos y su impacto a través de la disminución de morbimortalidad en trauma abdominal y torácico, en el reconocimiento de causas reversibles en actividad eléctrica sin pulso, en la toma de decisiones en falla ventilatoria aguda, en predicción de supervivencia y en la disminución de complicaciones en procedimientos invasivos. Se revisa cómo el ultrasonido realizado por no expertos con mínimo entrenamiento enfocado al reconocimiento de situaciones específicas tiene una adecuada correlación con el experto. Se revisan algunos protocolos de ultrasonido en reanimación descritos en la literatura y se hace una descripción de las variables más con relevantes en situaciones críticas como la función ventricular izquierda, respuesta a volumen, taponamiento cardíaco, dilatación del ventrículo derecho y la evaluación pulmonar.