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New survey data from the 7th National Audit Project of the Royal College of Anesthetists (NAP7) published in the journal Anaesthesia shows that potentially serious complications occur in one in 18 procedures under the care of an anesthetist. The risk factors associated with these potentially serious complications include very young age (babies); comorbidities; being male; increased frailty; the urgency and extent of surgery; and surgery taking place at night and/or at weekends.

Doctors in San Francisco are at the forefront of a movement to replace the drugs used for general anesthesia, which have been determined to be contributing to our climate change crisis.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Expanesthetics may benefit from increased concern about greenhouse gas potential of inhaled general anesthetics since it is targeting development of environmentally preferable agents.

Today’s recurring supply chain disruptions, delays and shortages are a daily source of frustration to American anesthesiologists. We are creatures of habit, and it can feel like a crisis when your go-to brand of IV catheter suddenly isn’t available. Those of us (the author included) who have never been on a medical mission or tried to give anesthesia in a low-resource environment have little idea how tough the circumstances can be, when you can’t reliably get something as basic as oxygen.

As the demand for such surgical care grows, many clinicians, including anesthesia care teams, are being asked to take care of more patients, all while maintaining patient safety. A new study appearing in JAMA Surgery from a team at the University of Michigan examines whether the number of overlapping procedures managed by the anesthesiologist increases the risk of death or complications after surgery. When compared to an anesthesiologist directing anesthesia for one to two overlapping surgeries, directing anesthesia for two to three or three to four overlapping surgeries led to an increase in the rate of morbidity and mortality. Instances where the anesthesiologist was directing three to four surgeries at a time had a complication rate of 5.75%, a 14% increase compared to the complication rate of 5.06% for one to two overlapping surgeries.

Although a database analysis has confirmed that intraoperative awareness during general anesthesia is exceedingly rare, the study identified common characteristics that seem to make the phenomenon more likely. As such, the clinicians behind the study urged anesthesia providers to take proper precautions when faced with cases where awareness may occur.