The Bare Minimum: The Reality of Global Anaesthesia and Patient Safety
Kelly McQueen1, Tom Coonan, Andrew Ottaway
1Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA, kamcqueen@gmail.com.
Introduction:
Current guidelines for the provision of safe anaesthesia from the World Health Organization and the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA) are unachievable in a majority of low and middle-income countries (LMICs) worldwide.
Methods:
Current guidelines for anaesthesia and patient safety provisions from the WHO and WFSA are compared with local ability to achieve these recommendations in LMICs.
Conclusions:
Influential international organizations have historically published anaesthesia guidelines, but for the most part, without impacting substantial documentable changes or outcomes in low-income environments. This analysis, and subsequent recommendations, reviews the effectiveness of existing strategies for international guidelines, and proposes practical, step-wise implementation of patient safety approaches for LMICs.
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