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Biomedical subjects

Farouk M Messahel

Publications and source records attributed to Farouk M Messahel.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Quality improvement in anesthetic practice--incidence of sore throat after using small tracheal tube.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Sore throat following surgery is common and is due to multitude of factors. The highest incidence of sore throat tends to occur in patients who have undergone tracheal intubation. Between 14.4% to 50% of intubated patients complain of sore throat and hoarseness in the immediate postoperative period, 3% of them are still hoarse after a week. This contributes to higher incidence of postoperative morbidity and patient dissatisfaction of the service. A prospective study was conducted to demonstrate the incidence of hoarseness and sore throat following the use of small tracheal tubes. METHODS: Adult patients, 16 years old and above, presented for tonsillectomy, nasal surgery and/or for functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) were included in the study. Patients who had signs of, common cold were excluded from the study. Size 7-7.5 mm cuffed tracheal tube was used in males and size 6-6.5 mm in females. Patients were asked during 24 hours postoperatively about the presence of hoarseness of voice and of their satisfaction of the service. RESULTS: There were 1618 patients 883 males and 735 females, ages: 16-62 yrs included in the study between February 2000 and end of May 2003. 189 (11.7%) developed postoperative hoarseness of voice and 1429 (88.3%) did not have hoarseness or sore throat (P = 0.0001). Patient satisfaction was 95%. CONCLUSIONS: The use of small tube in intubating the trachea, together with other measures such as lubricating the tube with water soluble jelly, careful airway instrumentation, intubation only when patient was fully relaxed, careful suctioning technique, and extubation when the tracheal tube cuff was fully deflated, have dramatic effects on minimizing the incidence of postoperative hoarseness and sore throat. Accordingly, patient satisfaction has been reported to be high.

Adolescent↗

Awareness during surgery.

OBJECTIVE: Patients who experience awareness under surgery may suffer from the post-traumatic stress disorder with its long-lasting psychological damage. Furthermore, there are also media attention and legal consequences. In spite of understanding its causes, it is still occurring worldwide and there are no reports of awareness in the Saudi medical literature. This prospective study was conducted to determine the incidence of awareness when its causes are eliminated and to record patient satisfaction. METHODS: Surgical patients >4 years old (ASA I-III) admitted to the Armed Forces Hospital, Wadi Al-Dawasir, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, between October 1998 and November 2002 were included in the study. Patients were given a premedicant with an amnesic effect. Anesthetic equipment with a built-in end-tidal anesthetic gas monitor was checked preoperatively. Minimal anesthetic concentrations of vapors were delivered and monitored. Intraoperative analgesia was provided whenever appropriate. Patients were closely observed for signs of intraoperative awareness under general anesthesia. All patients were interviewed within 24 hours postoperatively on the occurrence of awareness and service satisfaction. RESULTS: There were 4368 patients admitted to the study. Their ages ranged from 14-104 years (mean 40.2 years). All patients were interviewed in the postoperative period. There was no report of awareness during surgery and patient satisfaction score was 100%. CONCLUSION: Preoperative and intraoperative anesthetic attention to patients presented for surgery, together with the use of modern anesthetic delivery units possessing facilities for monitoring anesthetic gases, and the provision of good analgesia are the most important combination in eliminating awareness during surgery.

Adolescent↗

Incidence of intraoperative hypothermia. Adopting protocol for its prevention.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the incidence of hypothermia during surgical procedures when adequate methods of preserving normothermia are applied. METHODS: A prospective study in which patients ASA I-IV presented for surgery at the Armed Forces Hospital, Wadi Al-Dawasir, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during the period from July 2000 until February 2003, in whom body core temperature was between 35-37 degree, were included. Ambient temperature of the operating room was thermostatically adjusted to record 26 degree and 24 degree if patients were less than 10 year-old or above. Depending on type of surgery; the patients were provided with space blankets and were lying on warm mattresses. Fluid or blood warmers and forced-air surface warming were used when needed. RESULTS: There were 3886 surgical patients operated upon during the period of the study. Their average age was 34.5 years (range 15 days to 104 years). Sixty patients (1.54%) developed intraoperative hypothermia (core temperature <35 C) and were admitted to the intensive care unit for monitoring and gradual rewarming. There was no mortality amongst them. Out of those 60 patients, 17 (28.3%) expressed dissatisfaction on this part of the service, but the overall patient's satisfaction scored 99.6%. CONCLUSION: Aggressive measures must be adopted to preserve normothermia as prevention of intraoperative hypothermia improves patient's outcome. All patients should have their core body temperature monitored during surgery. However, application of available methods of keeping normothermia reduces the incidence of intraoperative hypothermia but does not abolish it completely. Hypothermic patients should be closely monitored during gradual rewarming, preferably in the intensive care setting. A protocol for prevention of intraoperative hypothermia must be adopted by all operating theaters.

Adolescent↗