Aims To identify drug usage/withdrawal in surgical patients and the relative risk this imposes on postoperative surgical complications. Methods A prospective survey of patients' medicines, oral intake (food/¯uids/ medicines) and postoperative complications was carried out in the General Surgical Unit, Dunedin Hospital, Dunedin, New Zealand. Results One thousand and twenty-®ve general surgical patients aged $ 16 years, were entered into the study. Half of the patients were taking medicines unrelated to surgery. On average these patients received 9 different drugs (range 1±47) from a selection of 251, of which 21% were released in the last 10 years. The mean number of these drugs taken increased with age, vascular surgery and other major procedures. The majority of patients (53%) were taking drugs for cardiovascular problems. Only 8% of admissions were on the drugs more traditionally recognized to be of importance to the surgery, i.e. steroids and diabetic therapy. With respect to risk, taking a drug unrelated to surgery was associated with an increased relative risk of a postoperative complication by 2.7 (95% C.I. 1.76±4.04) compared with those who were not taking any drug. Cardiovascular drugs contributed signi®cantly to this risk; when they were excluded from analysis, the risk dropped to 1.8 (95% C.I. 1.14±2.93). Death may be more common in those taking ACE inhibitors. Drug withdrawal and complications were analysed and as the time without medicines increased (range 1±42 days) so did the complication rate (x 2 =14.7, DF=2, P=0.007). Of those patients who were taking a cardiovascular medicine and were without their normal medicines for a period of time postoperatively, 12% suffered a cardiac complication. Conclusions Many patients admitted to a general surgical ward, are taking medicines unrelated to surgery. Drug therapy unrelated to surgery is a useful predictor for increased postoperative complications and one for which preventive action can be taken. This study provides evidence that withdrawal of regular medicines may add signi®cant risk to the surgery and further complicate outcome. The longer patients were without their regular medicines the more nonsurgical complications they suffered. Reintroduction of patients' regular medicines early in their postoperative course may decrease morbidity and mortality in-patients.
Tests of knowledge, aptitude and psychomotor skills have been used to assess and select surgical trainees but none of these is reliable in the long term. The industrial quality-control method of the cusum was used to assess performance progress in 17 surgical trainees. Trainees were assessed on their ability to perform, independently, selected surgical operations using the criterion of procedure duration. Cusum profiles were compared with scores from at least four independent assessors using a modified Royal Australasian College of Surgeons' mentor form. The cusum identified all trainees who were considered either satisfactory or less able by their mentors. This objective evaluation was reliable after 25 procedures, whether for appendicectomy or combined with herniorrhaphy and cholecystectomy. Evaluation of surgical performance using the cusum may prove to be a more objective tool for assessing surgical trainees than early impressions or less clinically oriented tests.
Clinical assessment of risk by the surgeon using a VAS score independently improves the prediction of perioperative complications. Including the unique contribution of the surgeon's clinical assessment should be considered in models designed to predict the risk of surgery.
A number of indicators of surgical risk were measured in 218 patients awaiting major gastrointestinal surgery. The indices chosen had been used by others to identify high risk patients and they were compared with each other and with two clinical assessments of risk, one by the operating surgeon and the other by an independent clinician who performed a complete physical examination. Anthropometric indices did not pick out patients who were significantly at high risk but the plasma proteins (albumin, pre-albumin, transferrin) identified subgroups of high risk patients, about a third of whom developed major postoperative complications. Although some nutritional indicators which use plasma proteins for the computation selected patients who were significantly more at risk, some (20-30 per cent) of the patients with low levels of plasma proteins (particularly those who were septic) did not have depleted fat or muscle protein stores. Although the surgeons were able correctly to identify only a small number of very high risk patients the results showed that a carefully performed clinical examination was able to do this as effectively as the plasma proteins. It is suggested that something more than a global assessment by the operating surgeon is required to identify high risk patients. A careful assessment of medical risk noting in particular cardiorespiratory disease and pre-existing sepsis, as well as nutritional state, is as effective as any other currently used indicator of risk.
One hundred and ninety-five central venous catheters used for intravenous nutrition in 113 patients were studied prospectively. Catheter-related sepsis (CRS), defined by recovery of the same organism from the catheter tip and peripheral blood cultures, occurred with only 3.3 per cent of catheters or 2.3 per 1000 days of therapy. In contrast, CRS was suspected with 30 per cent of catheters and catheter contamination occurred in 37 per cent. Contamination was defined by a positive catheter tip culture without recovery of the same organism from the blood. CRS was present in 4 of 12 cases (33 per cent) with greater than 1000 colony forming units on the catheter tip but in only 2 of 54 (4 per cent) with fewer organisms. Thirty-eight cases suspected of having CRS were randomized to have catheter removal and later replacement, or replacement over a guidewire. There were no significant differences in the catheter contamination rate but there were significantly fewer problems of insertion in the guidewire group. However, transfer of Klebsiella sp., during the guidewire procedure, resulted in subsequent sepsis in one case. It is concluded that replacement of catheters over a guidewire is a safe and convenient way of establishing whether sepsis is catheter-related. Because organisms may be transferred, the procedure is not an appropriate treatment for catheter-related sepsis.
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