Sir,Documentation of anaesthesia care is important for ensuring continuity of care, audit, quality improvement and medicolegal issues. We report a scenario where lack of proper documentation during previous surgery created a dilemma.A 45-year-old male attended the pre-anaesthesia evaluation clinic for an elbow surgery. A year back, he was operated for mid-shaft left femoral fracture. Eight months later, during femur implant removal, ‘reportedly’ under local anaesthesia, he had convulsions and cardiac arrest. He was revived, tracheally intubated and shifted to another hospital receiving mechanical ventilation. No abnormality was detected on computed tomography head. He was weaned from mechanical ventilation and trachea was extubated on the 3rd day and the patient was subsequently discharged home. The surgical notes of the procedure read ‘patient had seizures and arrest, was revived and intubated by anaesthetist and shifted to another hospital for further management’. With just these lines, no information could be attained such as the dose and name of local anaesthetic and any concomitant sedative/analgesia or measures taken to ‘revive’ the patient. The next hospital also provided supportive care and had incomplete details of the incident.We postulated a few probable causes such as local anaesthetic systemic toxicity (LAST), hypoxemia due to sedatives/analgesics, anaphylaxis and pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE)/fat embolism. As he was asymptomatic since previous hospital discharge and had normal routine investigations, we accepted the patient for surgery as American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status 1. We did not further investigate the probability of PTE or fat embolism because he was asymptomatic. Anaphylaxis might have occurred, so we planned a supraclavicular brachial plexus block to limit the number of required medications. Intradermal sensitivity test for ropivacaine was done which was negative. We discussed the probability of recurrence of anaphylactic reaction with the patient and reassured him. Prior to surgery, emergency airway management equipment and resuscitating medications were kept ready. Supraclavicular brachial plexus block was performed under ultrasound guidance to increase the success rate and reduce the required volume of 0.5% ropivacaine. The procedure was uneventful, but a question remains in our mind regarding the sequence of events in the previous surgery to reach a logical reason.Patient safety forms the core of anaesthetic practice. Although anaesthesia has become safer over the decades with a steep decline in anaesthesia-related mortality, critical events continue to occur, which might or might not be life-threatening.[1] Anaesthesiologists might refrain from reporting such events due to medicolegal implications. The Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF) endorses an ‘Adverse Event Protocol’ emphasising ‘Document Everything’.[2] Research involving voluntary reporting of critical events shows benefits in outcomes and thus critical incident reporting is a part of Quality Improvement Programmes at various institutes.[34]In an Indian context, ‘Guidelines for Documentation of Anesthetic Care’ are provided by the Indian College of Anaesthesiologists in ‘Practice Guidelines in Anesthesia’.[5] We suggest that anaesthetic technique and critical event details should be specifically mentioned in the discharge summary so that this information can be successfully shared with patient's future medical caregivers. The All India Difficult Airways Association has proposed a difficult airway alert form to be given to the patient since this information would be crucial if patient requires medical care, especially a surgery in future.[6]We request all anaesthesiologists to document anaesthetic care well and to include all the critical events. Furthermore, providing necessary information of critical events and details of its management, to patient and family in both verbal and written manner, would not only help our colleagues, but also ensure safety and quality of patient care.
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