Recent advances in ultrasound technology have made ultrasound equipment more versatile, portable, and accessible than ever. Modern handheld, ultra-portable ultrasound devices have been developed by multiple companies and are contributing to make bedside ultrasound evaluation a practice available to all physicians. The significance of making point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) a common practice that all physicians eventually can use in the evaluation of their patients is changing the way medicine is practiced, allowing physicians to quickly obtain valuable information to complement the traditional physical examination. Despite the proven benefits of using bedside ultrasound imaging as a part of the patient evaluation and for procedure guidance, adoption of this technology still is not widespread among anesthesiology clinicians nor is there uniform teaching of ultrasound skills to anesthesia residents and faculty. Among obstacles that have been identified as precluding achievement of the goal of widespread utilization of POCUS among anesthesia professionals and trainees, are the availability of equipment for all physicians when it is needed and lack of instructor supervision for trainees who desire to use ultrasound but do not always have an instructor knowledgeable in POCUS with them when an ultrasound examination is warranted. Herein, the characteristics, advantages, and limitations of available ultra-portable, handheld ultrasound devices are analyzed, with a focus on the Butterfly iQ (Butterfly Network, Inc, Guilford, CT) pocket probe, which is available at the authors' institution, and how some of its features, such as the capacity to emulate multiple transducers and its cloud-sharing and teleguidance technology, may contribute to increase the availability and use of POCUS by anesthesia clinicians.
BackgroundDespite showing a prognostic value in general surgical patients, preoperative asymptomatic elevated white blood cell (WBC) count is not considered a risk factor for cardiac surgery. Whereas there is sporadic evidence of its value as a preoperative risk marker, it has not been looked at methodically as a specific index of outcome during cardiac surgery. Using a national database we sought to determine the relationship between preoperative WBC count and postoperative outcome in cardiac surgical patients.MethodsCardiac surgeries were extracted from the 2007–2013 American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database. Leukocytosis was defined by a preoperative WBC count greater than 11,000 cells/μL. A univariate analysis compared the incidence of adverse outcomes for patients with and without leukocytosis. A multivariate logistic regression model was constructed in order to test whether leukocytosis was an independent predictor of morbidity and mortality.ResultsOut of a total of 10,979 cardiac surgery patients 863 (7.8%) had preoperative leukocytosis. On univariate analysis, patients with leukocytosis experienced greater incidences of 30-day mortality, wound complications, and medical complications. Wound complications included surgical site infection as well as wound dehiscence. The medical complications included all other non-surgical causes of increased morbidity and infection leading to urinary tract infection, pneumonia, ventilator dependence, sepsis and septic shock. After stepwise model adjustment, leukocytosis was a strong predictor of medical complications (OR 1.22, 95% CI: 1.09–1.36, p = 0.002) with c-statistic of 0.667. However, after stepwise model adjustment leukocytosis was not a significant predictor of 30-day mortality and wound complications.ConclusionPreoperative leukocytosis is associated with adverse postoperative outcome after cardiac surgery and is an independent predictor of infection-related postoperative complications.
By using patient-specific, 3-dimensionally printed, thoracic spine models, we demonstrated a significant improvement in clinical proficiency as compared with traditional teaching models.
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