[On the safe side? Safety culture and patient safety in German anesthesiology clinics-A nationwide survey on the status quo].

Background: A good safety culture may be predominantly defined by an open and unsanctioned communication about critical and erroneous courses. In an effort to improve patient safety various instruments, such as the critical incident reporting system (CIRS) or in terms of patient handover, the use of the situation, background, assessment, recommendation (SBAR) system patient handover, have been developed and are recommended by the German Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine (DGAI). This study aimed at identifying how anesthesiologists perceive the safety culture in their current department and whether CIRS or SBAR are already established or not.

Evaluation of digital thermal monitoring as a tool to assess perioperative vascular reactivity.

Aim: The inflammatory response following tissue injury after major surgery is known to affect endothelial function and vascular reactivity. In this study we evaluated the utility of bedside Digital Thermal Monitoring (DTM) as a surrogate for evaluating vascular function in the postoperative period.

Methods: Ischemia-induced reactive hyperemia variables were measured in sixty patients scheduled for major thoracic surgery using DTM (VENDYS 5000BC; Endothelix, Inc.

The impact of Trendelenburg position and positive end-expiratory pressure on the internal jugular cross-sectional area.

Background: Increasing the cross-sectional area (CSA) of the right internal jugular vein facilitates cannulation and decreases complications. Maneuvers such as the Trendelenburg tilt position and ventilation with a positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) may increase the CSA of the right internal jugular vein. We determined the changes in the CSA in response to different maneuvers.