Search

Background: An amniotic fluid embolism is a rare but deadly complication that accompanies an otherwise exciting event in one’s life. Without adequate knowledge of symptom presentation, pathology and treatment, anesthesia providers and labor and delivery nurses cannot treat mothers in an emergent situation. While this pathological process is difficult to study and often is a diagnosis of exclusion, current literature discusses a protocol that has shown great success for treatment of AFE. Purpose: The purpose of this project is to assess the knowledge and confidence of the anesthesia providers and L&D nurses in reference to the diagnosis, pathophysiology, presentation, and treatment of AFE and the A-OK protocol. Methods: An educational session was held for anesthesia and L&D staff at a level III medical center in North Carolina that discussed AFE presentation, pathology, treatment, and the A-OK protocol. A Likert-scale self-assessment of knowledge and confidence was administered to participating staff members as to assess the desired levels before and after the educational session. Additionally, badge buddies highlighting the signs, symptoms, and treatment of AFE were given to staff of the participating teams. Results: After completion of the education session and data collection, a statistically significant increase in provider knowledge and confidence was able to be seen. This data was analyzed using a paired t-test to assess for statistical significance. Conclusion: In conclusion, the anesthesia providers and L&D nurses all benefited from the education session and badge buddy tool regarding their knowledge and confidence. Recommendations: These project designers recommend the development of larger visual aids that can be placed in the L&D units and c-section suites to assist providers who may not have participated in this project. Also, an additional recommendation would be the development of an A-OK pack including the three medications outlined in

Background: With the emergence of Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI), clinicians have been facing a new group of patients with severe acquired brain injury who are unable to show any behavioral sign of consciousness but respond to active neuroimaging or electrophysiological paradigms. However, even though well documented, there is still no consensus regarding the nomenclature for this clinical entity. Objectives: This systematic review aims to 1) identify the terms used to indicate the presence of this entity through the years, and 2) promote an informed discussion regarding the rationale for these names and the best candidates to name this fascinating disorder. Methods: The Disorders of Consciousness Special Interest Group (DoC SIG) of the International Brain Injury Association (IBIA) launched a search on Pubmed and Google scholar following PRISMA guidelines to collect peer-reviewed articles and reviews on human adults (>18 years) published in English between 2006 and 2021. Results: The search launched in January 2021 identified 4,089 potentially relevant titles. After screening, 1,126 abstracts were found relevant. Finally, 161 manuscripts were included in our analyses. Only 58% of the manuscripts used a specific name to discuss this clinical entity, among which 32% used several names interchangeably throughout the text. We found 25 different names given to this entity. The five following names were the ones the most frequently used: covert awareness, cognitive motor dissociation, functional locked-in, non-behavioral MCS (MCS*) and higher-order cortex motor dissociation. Conclusion: Since 2006, there has been no agreement regarding the taxonomy to use for unresponsive patients who are able to respond to active neuroimaging or electrophysiological paradigms. Developing a standard taxonomy is an important goal for future research studies and clinical translation. We recommend a Delphi study in order to build such a consensus., The Human Brain Project