Numerous advances in technology during the past decade require that nurses not only be knowledgeable in nursing science but that they also become educated in information technology (IT). Perioperative IT has the potential to improve the quality of health care, reduce costs, decrease medication administration errors, reduce time spent on paperwork, increase management efficacy, and allow afforda...

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a complex, highly technical surgical procedure that can offer hope for children born with congenital heart defects. The procedure may only briefly prolong a life, has limited potential for decreasing mortality, and may lead to serious complications, however. Perioperative nurses play an important role in caring for the child who requires ECMO. They ...

In modern neurosurgical practice, CT is a well established, important examination for planning surgery and perioperative care. Recently, CT scanners have been used for intraoperative imaging during craniotomy [1-6]. In this paper, we report a newly developed mobile CT scanner gantry with a modified fork-lift gantry carrier. This system enables the radiologist to obtain CT images during surgery ...

Allergies to certain foods such as soybeans and eggs contraindicate the use of propofol, a short-acting hypnotic medication used by many anesthesia care providers. Understanding the safe use and handling of propofol and communicating known patient allergies to all surgical team members is crucial to providing safe perioperative care. The perioperative nurse's preoperative assessment supports an...

Living donor transplantation is an accepted clinical practice in select transplant centers in Western countries to increase the availability of organs, while is standard practice in East Asian transplant programs. Living-donor right hepatic lobe resection is a particularly risky operation, with two mandatory outcomes: no serious complications for the donor, and an optimal graft-recipient body w...

Recent advances in telemedicine and robotically assisted telesurgery may offer advanced surgical care for the geographically remote patient. Similar advances in tele-anesthesia will be necessary to optimize perioperative care for these patients. Although many preliminary investigations into tele-anesthesia are underway, none involves remote performance of anesthesia-related procedures. Here we ...

Controversial issues need properdiscussion, both in science and clinical medicine. Sometimes the interpretation of the available data is complex and not suitable for dissemination through the internet. We have just experienced such a case with regards to an opinion piece on beta-blockers in perioperative care published in ‘CardioPulse’, which had failed to undergo peer review that is required f...

1. Ogunnaike BO, Jones SB, Provost D, Whitten C. Anesthetic considerations for bariatric surgery. Anesth Analg 2002; 95: 1793–1805. 2. Schumann R, Jones SB, Ortiz VE et al. Best practice recommendations for anesthetic perioperative care management in weight loss surgery. Obes Res 2005; 13: 254–266. 3. Collins JS, Lemmens HJM, Brodsky JB, Brock-Utne JG, Levitan RM. Laryngoscopy and morbid obesit...

The perioperative care of the patient with known or suspected ischaemic heart disease requires careful co-ordination among the anaesthetist, surgeon and medical consultant. Careful preoperative evaluation can aid the identification of risk, the selection of preoperative interventions that may reduce risk, and decisions on intraoperative and postoperative monitoring. Although uncontrolled observ...

In the early 1990s, live kidney donation regained popularity to meet the demand of kidney transplantation. Significant developments in the field of live kidney donation have established live donation as the prime source of kidney transplants. Nowadays, management is focused on logistic and immunological innovations, and improvements in care of the live donor. However, a flawless surgical proced...