Accuracy of training blood volume quantification using a visual estimation tool

BACKGROUND

We investigated whether the use of a specially designed visual estimation tool may improve accuracy in quantifying blood volumes related to surface spreading.

METHODS

A prospective, paired-control, single-blinded experimental study was performed at a medical university. Anesthesiologists and emergency medical personnel estimated various blood volumes on surfaces with varying absorptivity (carpet, towel, polyvinyl chloride, wooden flooring) in an experimental setting. We assessed the sensitivity of training blood volume quantification using a self-designed visual estimation tool by comparing the accuracy of visual blood volume estimations before and after practical training with the tool.

RESULTS

A total of 352 estimations by 44 participants were evaluated. Accurate estimations improved significantly from pre-training to post-training (P<0.05). The sensitivity of blood volume quantification was 33.0% after training with the visual estimation tool. Estimations did not depend on age, profession, gender or years of the estimator's professional experience.

CONCLUSIONS

Training with a visual estimation tool by professional rescuers can improve the estimation accuracy of blood volumes spread on surfaces with varying absorptivity.

Primary aldosteronism with uncommon complications

In a patient who had primary aldosteronism and severe total-body potassium depletion muscular tonic contractures developed during induction of anesthesia. After correction of the potassium deficit, the patient underwent uneventful anesthesia and transabdominal right adrenalectomy. Neither serum potassium level nor EKG seems to provide a reliable index of correction of potassium deficit. Measurement of potassium balance provided a method of quantitating the potassium depletion and of determining when the potassium deficit had been corrected. Balance studies should be utilized preoperatively when long-term potassium loss is suspected to reduced complication secondary to hypokalemia.