Browsing by Author "McCartney, Sharon"

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    Cardiopulmonary Bypass Management Complicated by a Stenotic Coronary Sinus and Cold Agglutinins.
    (J Cardiothorac Vasc Anesth, 2018-01-10) Yalamuri, Suraj; Heath, Michele; McCartney, Sharon; Cushman, Tera; Maxwell, Cory
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    Jehovah's Witnesses and cardiac surgery: a single institution's experience.
    (Transfusion, 2014-10) McCartney, Sharon; Guinn, Nicole; Roberson, Russell; Broomer, Bob; White, William; Hill, Steven
    BACKGROUND: Based on biblical doctrines, patients of the Jehovah's Witness faith refuse allogeneic blood transfusion. Cardiac surgery carries a high risk of blood transfusion, but has been performed in Jehovah's Witnesses for many years. The literature contains information on the outcomes of this cohort, but does not detail the perioperative care of these patients. This article describes a single institution's experience in perioperative care of Jehovah's Witnesses undergoing cardiac surgery. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: A chart review of adult Jehovah's Witness patients undergoing cardiac surgery at Duke University between January 2005 and June 2012 was completed. Institutional protocols regarding preoperative erythropoietin (EPO) therapy and intraoperative isovolemic hemodilution are detailed. Patient demographics and use of various blood conservation techniques are described. Hemoglobin (Hb) at various points throughout the perioperative management, hospital length of stay, and mortality are reviewed as indicators of outcome. RESULTS: Forty-five Jehovah's Witness patients underwent cardiac surgery at Duke University Medical Center. Preoperative EPO increased the mean Hb by 1.2 g/dL before surgery. Intraoperative normovolemic hemodilution was used in 37 patients with intraoperative mean nadir Hb of 10.3 g/dL. Antifibrinolytics and desmopressin were commonly used as coagulation adjuncts. Mean cardiopulmonary bypass time was 137 minutes, with mean nadir temperature of 30.5°C. The mean length of hospital stay was 6.2 days, with mean intensive care unit stay of 1.7 days. This cohort had zero 90-day mortality in the perioperative period. CONCLUSIONS: This case series demonstrates that bloodless cardiac surgery can be performed in select patients refusing allogeneic blood transfusion.
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    Use of mobile tablet devices and reduction in time to perioperative transesophageal echocardiography reporting: a historical cohort study
    (Canadian Journal of Anesthesia, 2015-01-01) Bottiger, Brandi; McCartney, Sharon; Akushevich, Igor; Nicoara, Alina; Yanamadala, Mamata; Swaminathan, Madhav
    © 2014, Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society.Purpose: Timely communication of intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) findings to the postoperative care team is critical to optimizing patient care. We compared the use of a personal computer (PC) system with the use of a mobile tablet device (MTD) system for point-of-care TEE data entry and hypothesized that the MTD-based system would reduce the time to preliminary TEE reporting and decrease the incidence of delinquent reporting by 50%. Methods: In this historical cohort study, we reviewed 508 perioperative TEE reports entered by cardiothoracic anesthesia fellows. Reports were grouped based on whether data were entered on a PC (PC group) or a MTD (MTD group). Time to TEE reporting was defined as the time from the patient leaving the operating room to the time the TEE report was generated. Delinquent reports were defined as those generated >24 hr after the initial exam. Time to TEE reporting and incidence of delinquent reports were compared between the two groups. Results: Mean (SD) time to TEE reporting was significantly improved with MTD data entry vs PC data entry [233 (676) min vs 1,103 (3,830) min, respectively; mean difference 870 min; 95% confidence interval (CI) 293 to 1,448; P = 0.003], and median (IQR) time was also significantly improved [46 (163) min vs 126 (1,000) min, respectively; median difference 80 min; P = 0.0002]. The incidence of report delinquency with MTD data entry vs PC data entry was also significantly reduced [2.1% vs 6.8%, respectively; mean difference 2.2%; 95% CI 0.5 to 9.0; P = 0.02]. Conclusion: Implementation of a MTD system for data entry leads to improved TEE reporting time and reduces TEE reporting delinquency. Further studies are required to determine whether this strategy enhances quality of reporting, optimizes communication between care teams, and improves outcomes without increasing costs.