The Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF) presented a panel on neuromuscular blockade and patient safety during ANESTHESIOLOGY 2017 in Boston. The panel included presentation of a survey that sought to determine key clinical and patient safety issues related to perioperative management of neuromuscular blockade. This patient safety initiative was introduced by APSF President Mark Warner, M.D. He presented the project (made possible by an unrestricted grant from Merck, Inc.), which was designed to assess clinicians’ perceptions of neuromuscular blockade monitoring and incidence and management of residual neuromuscular paralysis. It was supported by Dr. Thomas Miller, head of the ASA’s Department of Analytics and Research Services.
As a first step, an inter-professional collaborative panel (Table 1) was established to oversee the project and develop best practice and educational recommendations. This panel, chaired by Sorin J. Brull, M.D., was tasked with a systematic literature review designed to:
A multidisciplinary survey...
