More than 35 participants across all specialties (surgery, anesthesia, perfusion and nursing) from the cardiac surgical team at Kingston Health Sciences Centre participated in two days of simulations focused on the novel use of the GAMPT Bubble Counter.
The simulation was the first of its kind in the world, says Chief Perfusionist Maggie Savelberg, who led the multidisciplinary effort with support from the Chiefs of Cardiac Surgery, Dr. Dimitri Petsikas, and Cardiac Anesthesia, Dr. Tarit Saha.
The Bubble Counter can calculate the number, frequency and volume of microbubbles in the bloodstream delivered to a simulated “patient” during various scenarios where inadvertent air delivery to the patient during extracorporeal circulation is possible. The Counter provides a direct quality measure of team effectiveness in managing the critical event, and subsequently a new protocol for managing life-threatening embolisms during cardiopulmonary bypass.
Because gas bubbles can block vessels and cause neurological events such as stroke, monitoring and managing their delivery is critical to patient safety, says cardiac surgeon Dr. Gianluigi Bisleri.
The Cardiac program now runs two simulation sessions annually to enhance its quality of service.
“Innovation is not always about a new device,” says Dr. Bisleri. “It can be about making a process better. We’re always striving for improvement. As a standard of practice, simulation is not that common in many health sciences centre but it plays a key role at KHSC in helping us to adopt tools and processes that make surgery safer for our patients.”
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