The delivery of high-quality pain management in the perioperative environment can be challenging and difficult to quantify. Commonly used tools in delivering care, such as pain intensity ratings, individual pain experience reporting, assessments of individual patients' expectations, and patient satisfaction scores, have limitations and are not always useful when addressing quality improvement m...

Evidence-based practice (EBP), in combination with clinical expertise and patient values wishes, enables delivery of exceptional patient-centred care. Providing our perioperative patients care that is informed by best evidence has been proven to provide a safer higher standard

Although the science of identifying patients who are at highest risk for perioperative cardiac events (e.g., myocardial infarction [MI], unstable angina, congestive heart failure, and cardiac death) is well developed, the evidence to support how best to care for high-risk patients was, until recently, scanty and conflicting.1,2 The emergence of a literature supporting the efficacy and effective...

Perioperative pulmonary complications are known to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality, and as such, contribute a large burden to the health care system globally. Anesthesiologists have an important role during the perioperative period to identify patients at risk of these complications and intervene in order to reduce them. After describing perioperative pulmonary complications and ris...

Background: Patients undergoing surgery are at risk of developing complications related to surgery and anesthesia amidst heightened anxiety. The key roles played by perioperative nurses in surgery, mandate them to conduct preoperative patient assessment to identify and mitigate potential complications and to plan and deliver quality perioperative care. However, paucity of literature evidencing ...

BACKGROUND In the organ transplant process, the perioperative nurse plays an important role in assisting with organ procurement, during which they are frequently required to witness the death of donors. Their experiences and feelings regarding such are largely hidden and little discussed. PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to understand the experience, feelings, and self-care strategies of...

BACKGROUND Most anesthesiologists will experience at least one perioperative catastrophe over the course of their careers. Very little, however, is known about the emotional impact of these events and their effects on both immediate and long-term ability to provide care. In this study, we examined the incidence of perioperative catastrophes and the impact of these outcomes on American anesthesi...

BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to determine the incidence and outcome of perioperative cardiac arrest (CA) in children younger than 18 yr undergoing anesthesia for noncardiac and cardiac procedures at a tertiary care center. METHODS After institutional review board approval (Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota), all patients younger than 18 yr who had perioperative CA between Novemb...

BACKGROUND The optimal perioperative use of intensive care unit (ICU) resources is not yet defined. We sought to determine the effect of ICU admission on perioperative (30 day) and long-term mortality. METHODS This was an observational study of all surgical patients in Scotland during 2005-7 followed up until 2012. Patient, operative, and care process factors were extracted. The primary outco...

BACKGROUND Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is present in a significant proportion of the population, but the majority of patients remain undiagnosed. It is crucial that anesthesiologists and surgeons recognize the increased perioperative risks associated with undiagnosed OSA. We present a systematic review of the literature on the perioperative management of surgical patients with OSA. METHODS ...