[Mix-up of medication in spinal anaesthetics].

Background: Administration of the wrong medication can cause severe injury and harm to the patient; it can also have a big impact on the healthcare professionals involved.

Case Description: We describe two patient cases in which the antifibrinolytic agent tranexamic acid was accidentally administered instead of the planned anaesthetic drug bupivacaine. The medication mix-up resulted in serious adverse outcomes for both patients.

Training needs and qualifications of anaesthesiologists not exposed to ALS.

Objectives: To establish which needs exist for specific training in Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ALS) in anaesthesiology residents and interns not exposed to structured ALS courses.

Methods: 48 residents, and seven interns accepted for training in anaesthesiology, were tested in a spontaneous, blind, cross-sectional, prospective assessment using a recording manikin with validated scoring system, a questionnaire, and 35 multiple-choice questions.

Results: 65% admitted not having had any CPR training within the last 2 years.

Hemocue--a new haemoglobinometer in the clinic.

The accuracy of the Hemocue, a portable haemoglobinometer, was tested on 29 patients undergoing open-heart surgery, and the results were compared with the haemoglobin values obtained from the hospital laboratory. Special attention was paid to the lower range of haemoglobin values and the simplicity and speed of operating the meter. The correlation between the methods was good (r = 0.

Augmented breath provoked by lung inflation in cat.

The rate of occurrence and magnitude of provoked augmented breath (PAB) were studied as the function of lung expansion applied at different intervals (15-180 s). Together with phrenic nerve activity (Phr.) the activities of recurrent laryngeal (RL) and hypoglossal (Hyp) nerves were investigated during PAB.