NCT04377633

Anesthesia-handover Checklist and Perioperative Outcomes in Elderly

Impact of an Anesthesia-handover Checklist on Perioperative Outcomes of Elderly Patients Undergoing Major Noncardiac Surgery: A Prospective Before-and-after Study

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 1,421 (actual)
• Sponsor: Peking University First Hospital · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 65 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

With the increasing number of surgical cases, intraoperative handover of anesthesia care is common and inevitable. Verbal handover from one anesthesiologist to another during surgery are being used in many hospitals. However, verbal handover is often an informal, unstructured process during which omissions and errors can occur. It is possible that an improved anesthesia handover may reduce the related adverse events. This study aims to test the hypothesis that use of a well-designed, structured handover-checklist to improve handover quality may decrease the occurrence of postoperative complications in elderly patients undergoing major noncardiac surgery.

Detailed description

It was estimated that more than 9 million patients undergo surgery with a complete anesthesia handover each year worldwide. Verbal handover from one anesthesiologist to another during surgery are being used in many hospitals; and there is no unified patient handover guideline at present. It is well recognized that the transfer-of-care is a point of vulnerability where valuable patient information can be distorted and omitted. A previous study of the investigators showed that handover of anesthesia care was associated with a higher risk of delirium in elderly patients after major noncardiac surgery. The World Health Organization has included communication during patient care handovers among its top 5 patient safety initiatives. It is possible that an improved anesthesia-handover protocol may reduce the related adverse events. Many efforts have performed to optimize handover processes. However, handover quality between anesthesiologists has rarely been investigated. The investigators hypothesize that a well-designed, structured handover-checklist will improve handover quality and reduce the occurrence of postoperative complications.

Conditions

• Elderly Patients
• Major Surgery
• Anesthesia; Adverse Effect
• Prevention
• Postoperative Complications

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
PROCEDURE	Oral handover	Anesthesia handover during surgery will be performed as usual, i.e., oral exchange of pertinent clinical information.
PROCEDURE	Checklist handover	Anesthesia handover during surgery will be performed according to a structured handover checklist.

Timeline

• Start date: 2020-07-16
• Primary completion: 2023-11-23
• Completion: 2023-12-23
• First posted: 2020-05-06
• Last updated: 2024-12-02

Locations

1 site across 1 country: China