Effect of anesthesia care transitions on postop complications

Editor's Note

The number of additional attending anesthesiologists and in-room providers (ie, anesthesia residents, nurse anesthetists) involved in a surgical procedure was independently associated with an increased odds of postoperative complications in this study.

Though a surgical patient may receive anesthesia care from several anesthesia providers, the safety of anesthesia care transitions had not been studied before.

These findings challenge the assumption that anesthesia transitions are care neutral and do not contribute to surgical outcomes, the authors say.

BACKGROUND: A patient undergoing surgery may receive anesthesia care from several anesthesia providers. The safety of anesthesia care transitions has not been evaluated. Using unconditional and conditional multivariable logistic regression models, we tested whether the number of attending anesthe...