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The COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing as of September 2022. Since January 2020 when the first case was reported in Japan, the medical community faced a variety of problems both domestically and internationally. It is meaningful to review the impact of COVID-19 from an anesthesiologist's perspective to clarify our policy for future infectious disease outbreaks. In this year's Journal of Anesthesia (JA) symposium, five experts who were deeply involved in the COVID-19 response reviewed the past 2.5 years and made recommendations for potential future pandemics. Anesthesiologists are specialists in airway management and their role in intubating patients with COVID-19 has received much attention. However, they have also played an important backup role in intensive care as critical care physicians and must be more involved in critical care in regular (non-pandemic) times to properly fulfill this role. It is especially important for the Japan Society of Anesthesiologists and JA to quickly disseminate accurate information on unknown infectious diseases to the medical community and wider society. Therefore, it is important to promptly publish papers that are quality-assured through peer review., Author(s): Kanji Uchida [sup.1], Osamu Nishida [sup.2], Hiroshi Morimatsu [sup.3], Takahisa Goto [sup.4], Yutaka Oda [sup.5], Takashi Asai [sup.6] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.26999.3d, 0000 0001 2151 536X, Department of Anesthesiology, [...]

To avoid the risk of R-on-T incident and the unnecessary decrease of cardiac output, we devised an algorithm consisting of six steps for choosing the most appropriate intraoperative pacemaker (PM) mode, which is modified from Heart Rhythm Society and the American Society of Anesthesiologists expert consensus statement. Following this algorithm, we reviewed previous operations at our hospital to evaluate the appropriateness of the choices. Six of 78 cases (7.7%) were unfit to the algorithm because of an inappropriate mode change. The PM mode was changed preoperatively in four patients, even though the surgical site was under the umbilicus. In one case of the two other cases, the PM mode was changed from AAI to VOO. This case could not be avoided by the previous algorithm of the expert clinical statements. In another case, the anesthesiologist did not change PM mode even though the patient underwent parotidectomy and his heart rate depended on PM. Prospective research on this algorithm could clarify its usefulness in the future. Moreover, discussions about this algorithm could help develop this field of study and improve the intraoperative management of PMs., Author(s): Yusaku Terada [sup.1], Tetsuya Miyashita [sup.1], Yusuke Nagamine [sup.1], Takahisa Goto [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.470126.6, 0000 0004 1767 0473, Department of Anesthesiology, Yokohama City University Hospital, , 3-9 [...]

The aim of this special article is to introduce Perianesthesia Nurses (PANs) who play an essential role in assisting anesthesiologists to ensure the safety of patients undergoing anesthesia and to improve the quality of anesthetic care. In Japan, there is no national license for nurse anesthesia providers. Therefore, most of the tasks related to anesthesia are performed by the anesthesiologists. Due to the size and complexity of the aging population, higher quality perioperative care is needed. In search of a solution, PANs were introduced to improve anesthetic care in Japan, enabling anesthesiologists to delegate some of their tasks to PANs who work within the scope of registered nurse's policies. They are a new type of anesthesia care provider in Japan, and different from Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists in the United States. Currently, six schools provide 2-year master's degree perianesthesia nursing programs, and graduates are now providing anesthetic care both inside and outside of the operating room under the direct supervision of anesthesiologists. PANs not only assist anesthesiologists and help to reduce anesthesiologists' workload, but also contribute to the expansion of anesthesia services. They ensure patient safety and improve the quality of patient care before, during, and after the patient undergoing anesthesia., Author(s): Yukiko Ide [sup.1], Yuki Umeno [sup.2], Nanako Tanaka [sup.1], Yusuke Nagamine [sup.1], Takahisa Goto [sup.1], Susan P. McMullan [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.470126.6, 0000 0004 1767 0473, Department of [...]

Purpose Severe hypotension caused by anesthetic administration for anesthesia induction, which might cause ischemic stroke, myocardial injury, acute kidney injury and postoperative mortality, should be prevented. Anesthesiologists are familiar with ultrasound examination of the internal jugular vein (IJV). This study aimed to clarify whether ultrasonographic IJV evaluation just before induction could predict the occurrence of such hypotension. Methods Adult patients undergoing surgery under general anesthesia were enrolled after excluding patients with cardiovascular disease or ASA-PS [greater than or equal to] III. Ultrasonographic IJV images were recorded in both the supine and 10° Trendelenburg positions immediately before induction. Using these images, IJV area (IJV-A), diameter and change rate with posture were measured. Hypotension during induction was defined as mean BP 30% decrease from baseline. Results Hypotension during induction was observed in 37 of 82 patients. IJV-A in the Trendelenburg position was 2.02 ± 0.86 and 1.72 ± 0.68 in the hypotensive and non-hypotensive groups, respectively (P = 0.08). Logistic regression analysis performed using age, use of calcium antagonists, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers, baseline mean BP and IJV-A in the Trendelenburg position as variables showed that IJV-A in the Trendelenburg position was an independent predictor of hypotension, with an adjusted odds ratio of 3.11 (95% CI 1.07-9.03, P = 0.04). Area under the curve was 0.595 (95% CI 0.469-0.722) for IJV-A in the Trendelenburg position. Conclusion IJV-A in the Trendelenburg position was an independent predictor of hypotension during induction. Further study is required to examine the diagnostic accuracy of IJV-A as a predictor for hypotension during induction., Author(s): Kenta Okamura [sup.1], Takeshi Nomura [sup.2], Yusuke Mizuno [sup.2], Tetsuya Miyashita [sup.2], Takahisa Goto [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.470126.6, 0000 0004 1767 0473, Department of Anesthesiology, Yokohama City University [...]

Acute kidney injury (AKI) after cardiac surgery is a common complication that can lead to death. We previously reported that the creatinine reduction ratio (CRR) serves as a useful prognostic factor for AKI. The primary objective of this study was to determine the predictors of AKI after surgery. The secondary objective was to determine the reliability of the CRR for short- and long-term outcomes. We retrospectively collected information about cardiac surgery patients who underwent cardiopulmonary bypass. Patients were divided into AKI and non-AKI groups based on the AKIN and RIFLE criteria. We analyzed the two groups regarding the preoperative patient data and operative information. The CRR was calculated as follows: (preoperative creatinine—postoperative creatinine)/preoperative creatinine. The prognostic factors of AKI-CS were surgery time, CPB time, aorta clamp time, platelet transfusion, and CRR < 20%. In the multivariate logistical analysis, CRR was an independent predictor of AKI (adjusted odds ratio: 0.90 [0.87–0.93], p < 0.001). However, there were no significant differences in CRR in terms of the rate of new onset chronic kidney disease (CKD). After cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass, CRR has good diagnostic power for predicting perioperative AKI. However, we cannot use it as a prognostic factor over a long-term period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]