Latest news with #anesthesia
New York Times
2 days ago
- Health
- New York Times
‘The Retrievals' is not meant to scare you
By Susan Burton Hi Retrievals listeners, Episode 2 drops today! If you missed the Episode 1 newsletter, about what led me to report on the problem of severe pain during C-sections and the people trying to solve it, you can find it here. Episode 2 takes up the question of 'why?' Why are patients feeling everything during C-sections? It's not an easy question to answer, and in this episode, we hear what happens when a doctor gets up onstage and asks a ballroom full of anesthesiologists to wrestle with it. Last week, when we announced the new season on Instagram, hundreds of readers responded in the comments, often with personal stories of painful C-sections. Others questioned whether it was even a good idea to put this type of content out there on Instagram. Personally what I find scary is that 100,000 U.S. patients a year are feeling significant pain during major abdominal surgery and that hardly anyone knows about it. Yes, it would be great if everyone could have a one-on-one consultation with an anesthesiologist before they even go into labor. It's not such a pie-in-the-sky idea: People are thinking about how to make this a reality. (Search this report for 'prenatal anesthesia consultations.') But right now that's not how our system works. So now that you know that this can happen during a C-section, what do you do with that information? Often the answer to this question is: Advocate for yourself! And, yes, but that should not be the only answer. The responsibility should not be on patients to fix this problem. Yesterday a listener sent me an email saying that when the doctors tested her spinal block before her C-section, she could tell the block wasn't working. Initially she was met with disbelief, and so, lying exposed on the operating table she had to, she wrote, 'project manage' the OR in order to get the care she needed. You should not have to project manage your own C-section. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Medscape
4 days ago
- Business
- Medscape
Revolutionizing Anesthesia Drug Management and Integrity
Stocking and restocking anesthesia carts is tedious and meticulous — and it's highly regulated. Anesthesiologists have direct and extensive access to controlled drugs in a hospital setting, particularly potent opioids and sedatives, which makes these processes vulnerable to the potential of abuse. Within the anesthesia ecosystem, the doctor has a partner in the stocking and restocking process, and that's the hospital pharmacy staff. This team has so much reporting to do: logging which medications were used by which operating teams and on which patients — data that ultimately get reported to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Errors in any part of the dispensing, stocking, and securing process could result in waste, fines, medication errors, or worse. Hospitals have been on the search for help. Several companies have focused on what's called RAIN RFID. The technology uses passive ultrahigh frequency waves to essentially perform the function of Bluetooth or Wi-Fi for short-range device communication. It's available to hospitals to help with everything from patient tracking to equipment security and compliance. For anesthesia departments, the company Intelliguard created what it calls the Mira Ecosystem. It's built on RAIN RFID and monitors each vial of medication through its entire journey, filling clinical, compliance, and supply chain functions. Tray Setups and Refills Are Quick, Easy, and Traceable According to Intelliguard, about 90% of its systems are currently deployed to serve anesthesia departments. When vials of medication arrive at the pharmacy, a technician applies the Mira tag to each vial, and immediately, the system begins tracking each individual one. 'Our system reads each of the 96-bit unique IDs and then associates those unique IDs with the medication. So now each of those IDs is associated with rocuronium, for example, and the company that made it, the serial number, and the expiration and the lot number,' said Paul Elizondo, Intelliguard's chief innovation officer. 'From then on, when our system sees that 96-bit unique ID, it associates it with the medication in a database. It displays that on the screen, and we know exactly what that medication is now.' Paul Elizondo The system tracks each vial of medication throughout its journey at the hospital, giving pharmacy managers and hospital administrators instant, real-time visibility into where each vial is and when. In terms of daily pharmacy tasks, making up medication trays for anesthesiologists is made nearly foolproof, reducing medication errors. 'The hospitals using our system will place these RFID-tagged medications into the tray, then they will place that tray into our enclosure,' said Elizondo. 'In 6 seconds, we read every single tag in that tray, and we let them know if that formula, if what's in the tray, matches the formulary to which they're building right at that time.' The system can also check to ensure there are no expired or recalled medications in the tray. The real-time savings come, though, when the anesthesiologist returns the tray at the end of the day. Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego is using this system. Performance improvement pharmacist Ann McKinstry explained some of the ways that she's seen return on investment gains. 'Pinpointing the medication location has allowed for a more rapid response to expiry, recalls, and patient care events,' McKinstry said. 'Inpatient pharmacy inventory is tightened by offering a streamlined data review to analyze usage and reducing waste by tightening supply on hand. In addition, RFID tags allow accurate controlled substance reconciliation by monitoring usage, waste, and replenishment down to the minute.' Real-Time Tracking of Medication Location Saves a Life Knowing exactly where your medications are on a real-time basis isn't just important: It can be a matter of life and limb. For example, if a patient with a deadly North American pit viper bite is rolled into your emergency department, as happened at a Bartow, Florida hospital at 1 AM on May 4 — you'd definitely want to know if you have antivenom on hand. Bartow was out. They reached out to Prodigy Health, distributor of specialty pharmaceuticals that supplies medicines to hospitals on a consignment basis. Prodigy runs a 24-hour switchboard and uses RAIN to gain visibility into what is being dispensed by each hospital. The antivenom was quickly located at a hospital in Lutz, Florida, one that had a RAIN RFID cabinet. The request was made, the antivenom was transferred, and the day was saved. Ty Dishman Before this technology, 'This process was manual and time-consuming. Now, with reliable data integrating into our system every 6 seconds, we're able to provide immediate, confident answers to customer inquiries about medication availability and delivery timelines,' said Ty Dishman, CEO of Prodigy Health. 'Instead of saying, 'I think it's there — let me check and call you back,' we can act quickly and efficiently, ensuring life-saving medications are mobilized without delay.' The Competitive Landscape RFID systems are nothing new in the healthcare environment. They're commonly used to track medical equipment and inventory, as well as in staff badging systems. Its use in medication management is fairly recent. Terso Solutions offers a similar suite to the Mira Ecosystem, with the exception of Intelliguard's direct-to-operating room tray system; Avery Dennison Medical and Healthcare provides a wide range of pharmaceutical labeling options, and some options include RFID.
Medscape
5 days ago
- Health
- Medscape
Adverse Events in Airway Procedures in Kids: Key Risks
TOPLINE: Adverse events occurred in 2% of children who underwent procedures for airway management under general anesthesia, with higher rates in neonates and infants. Risk factors included younger age, the presence of anatomic difficulties, and undergoing anesthesia outside operating rooms. METHODOLOGY: Researchers conducted a prospective observational study at 10 tertiary care hospitals in Japan from June 2022 to January 2024, focusing on the incidence of adverse events during airway management in children under general anesthesia. A total of 16,695 children (mean age, 6.3 years; 41.4% girls; 1.8% neonates and 11.7% infants) received advanced airway management at least once under general anesthesia, with or without regional anesthesia, including tracheal intubation or the placement of a supraglottic airway device. Data on patient comorbidities, types of surgeries, training levels of anesthesia providers, and practices for airway management were collected. The primary outcome was the occurrence of adverse events related to airway management procedures during general anesthesia; the secondary outcome was desaturation, defined as a drop in oxygen saturation of at least 10%. Occurrences of any adverse events, including at least one hemodynamic and airway-related complication, and respiratory adverse events were recorded, and risk factors for adverse events and desaturation were identified. TAKEAWAY: Any adverse events occurred in 2% of cases of airway management, and desaturation was noted in 2.3% of cases. The incidence of any adverse events was 5.8% in neonates and 3.3% in infants, higher than that in preschool and school-going children and adolescents. Increasing age was linked to reduced odds of any adverse events (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.92; P < .001). Insertion of a supraglottic airway device and the use of muscle relaxants at first attempt were also linked to reduced odds of any adverse events. Factors associated with increased odds of any adverse events included undergoing anesthesia in CT, MRI, or radiation therapy rooms (aOR, 5.7; P = .006); having airway sensitivity (aOR, 1.46; P = .010); and having one (aOR, 1.74; P = .042) or at least two (aOR, 2.82; P = .017) anatomic difficulties. The odds of desaturation decreased with increasing age (aOR, 0.78; P < .001) but were higher when anesthesia was provided in catheter labs and CT, MRI, or radiology therapy rooms than when provided in operating rooms. Airway management by nonspecialist anesthesiologists and trainees also was linked to higher odds of desaturation than when the intervention was performed by pediatric anesthetists. IN PRACTICE: 'Our study, focusing specifically on airway management, showed that approximately 21% of neonates and 7% of infants experienced desaturation, which was higher than that in other age groups,' the researchers reported. 'Neonates' unique physiological and anatomical characteristics can explain this hypoxic progression tendency…The higher desaturation incidence in neonates in our study highlights the necessity for shorter tracheal intubation time and higher first-attempt success rates in neonates,' they added. SOURCE: This study was led by Taiki Kojima, MD, MPH, of the Department of Anesthesiology at Aichi Children's Health and Medical Center in Obu, Japan. It was published online on July 07, 2025, in Anesthesiology. LIMITATIONS: The reliance on self-reported data from anesthesiologists may have introduced reporting bias and inaccuracies. Selection bias could have occurred due to missing cases, and unmeasured confounders may have affected the results. The exact incidence of adverse events by device type remained unclear due to multiple attempts with different devices. DISCLOSURES: The J-PEDIA study was funded by grants from the Ministry of Education in Japan. This study received Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education in Japan. No additional conflicts of interest were disclosed by the authors. This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
CBS News
03-07-2025
- Health
- CBS News
Beluga whale at Shedd Aquarium becomes first in the world to recover from general anesthesia after successful surgery
A beluga whale at Chicago's Shedd Aquarium became the first known beluga whale to recover from general anesthesia after a successful surgery this week. The 12-year-old whale named Kimalu needed to have a network of growing cysts on her head and neck near her blowhole removed. The team at the aquarium performed the historic surgery with Kimalu under general anesthesia. Shedd officials said the surgery was a success, providing Kimalu with immediate relief, and she woke up from the anesthesia and is now recovering. She is being monitored around the clock during her recovery, focusing on antibiotics, incision site care, pain management and post-surgery nutrition. Scientists say general anesthesia is particularly complicated for beluga whales because of their size and unique physiology. When she woke up, her lifelong caregivers were with her to speak to her and play recordings of vocalizations from the Shedd's beluga pod for her. She is now recovering in a specially designed medical habitat.
Fox News
17-06-2025
- Health
- Fox News
Dentist was previously on probation before treating 9-year-old girl who died after anesthesia
A California dentist who treated a 9-year-old girl hours before she died following a routine procedure was placed on probation years prior for another procedure mishap, documents show. Back in 2020, Dr. Ryan Watkins was disciplined over a 2016 incident in which a 54-year-old man's heart stopped after Watkins put him under anesthesia during a dental procedure. According to a complaint filed with the Dental Board of California, Watkins engaged in "unprofessional conduct" after "clearly excessively administering drugs or treatment" to the patient, identified only as "MK." The man had seen Watkins approximately three times before the dental surgery and was considered to be in "excellent health" and was a triathlete. However, it was noted that the victim had a low resting heart rate, dental phobia and had a history of fainting, which the complaint said Watkins did not investigate or document. The patient's heart stopped during the surgery where Watkins began CPR to revitalize it until EMS arrived, the documents said. Hospital staff noted that the victim's ribs were fractured due to Watkins performing chest compressions on him. The man was later diagnosed with a mild neurocognitive disorder caused by cardiac arrest, records show. "A doctor concluded that the administration of ephedrine likely caused MK's tachycardia (increased heart rate above 100 bpm) that would have subsided and that the use of adenosine was unnecessary and caused MK's heart to stop (asystole)," the documents read. Watkins was placed under probation for 35 months by the California Dental Board, which still allowed him to keep working at the practice as long as he complied with additional requirements and oversight. According to the decision, Watkins was also ordered to pay more than $19,000 to cover investigative and prosecution costs. Watkins confirmed the previous incident to Fox News Digital, stating that "emergency protocols were immediately activated" once the patient developed cardiac arrhythmia during the procedure. "Following this incident, regulatory proceedings were initiated. Throughout this process, we maintained that comprehensive safety protocols were followed, all medications were administered according to manufacturer guidelines based on the patient's age and weight, and the patient received continuous monitoring," Watkins explained in a statement. He added that "in an effort to resolve the matter and focus on patient care," a settlement was reached without admission of wrongdoing and probation orders were completed. "This experience has reinforced our unwavering commitment to patient safety. We continue to maintain rigorous adherence to established emergency response procedures, comprehensive safety protocols, and continuous patient monitoring systems to ensure the highest standard of care for all our patients." Watkins is still practicing at Dreamtime Dentistry and reiterated that he was not at fault for 9-year-old Silvanna Moreno's death and not aware of her health issues. "The coroner's report showed her death to be an accident due to a pre-existing medical condition of which none of the parties were aware prior to the procedure," the statement from Watkins read. "While the Medical Examiner has ruled this an accident, we take this outcome with the utmost seriousness," the statement continued. Watkins added that a thorough internal review of Moreno's case is being conducted and that they are consulting with leading experts in dental anesthesia to ensure patient safety is provided. "The safety and well-being of our patients will always remain our highest priority. We are committed to learning from this tragic event and will implement any additional safety measures that may help prevent such occurrences in the future," Watkins said. Moreno had been referred to the practice for dental treatment under general anesthesia "due to her young age and situational anxiety," on March 18, where she was seen by Watkins, according to a previous statement obtained by Fox News Digital. Watkins said that "the dosage administered was appropriate for the patient's age and weight, following established medical protocols." "Any interactions or negative side effects were not due to dosage but instead due to her rare but undiagnosed/undetected medical condition," Watkins shared in a statement with Fox News Digital. According to an autopsy report from the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office, authorities ruled that her manner of death was an accident caused by "methemoglobinemia in the setting of recent nitrous oxide administration." "We are profoundly saddened by the tragic loss of Silvanna Moreno, and our hearts continue to go out to her family during this incredibly difficult time," Watkins said. Stepheny Price is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. She covers topics including missing persons, homicides, national crime cases, illegal immigration, and more. Story tips and ideas can be sent to
