Cognitive aids: 'a must' for procedures performed by multidisciplinary sedation teams outside the operation room?

The human brain might not perform optimally during stressful situations. Cognitive aids can help in such situations to carry out all necessary treatment steps in a correct order. We present the case of a severe anaphylactic reaction during a percutaneous radiological intervention to drain an echinococcosis cyst on the radiology suite outside the operation room (OR), in which cognitive aids were successfully used to optimise patient care by a multidisciplinary team. Cognitive aids do not replace experience and skills of the individual caregivers, but can be invaluable tools for multidisciplinary teams dealing with crisis situations outside the OR. © BMJ Publishing Group Ltd (unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.