Safety and quality update

New safety alert 

Urgent recall of selected paediatric endotracheal tubes

ANZCA recently published this Safety Alert to advise of the TGA and the Health New Zealand urgent recall of selected Smiths Medical ORAL/NASAL Endotracheal Tubes (ETT) designed for babies. The affected ETTs are UNcuffed and may have a smaller (internal) diameter than expected. Read more here.

See all Safety Alerts

New factsheet – Cleaning and disinfection of ultrasound transducers

The ACSQHC has recently published a factsheet that advises about the essential steps required to clean and disinfect ultrasound transducers used for percutaneous procedures.

Emerging concerns about GLP-1/GIP receptor agonists and webAIRS 

A recent incident reported to webAIRS highlights the challenges during perioperative anaesthesia care with a patient on semaglutide (Ozempic/Wegovy).

Multidisciplinary consensus recommendations for the management of patients taking GLP-1/GIP Receptor Agonists have been published in Australia, the USA and the United Kingdom. These have been in response to emerging clinical concerns that patients taking GLP-1/GIP Receptor Agonists for either weight control or diabetes management had delayed gastric emptying, with a higher-than-normal risk of solid or semi-solid food being present in the stomach, even after 'normal' fasting periods.

A podcast by Dr Morgan Edwards, NZSA President and Dr Clayton Lam, ANZTADC Analyser, in November 2024, discussed incidents reported to webAIRS involving GLP-1 receptor agonists. 

Look out for the upcoming webAIRS article: ‘The case series of incidents reported to webAIRS relating to GLP-1 agonist’, written by Dr Clayton Lam, Dr D-Yin Lin, and Dr Yasmin Endlich. The article was recently accepted for publication in the Anaesthesia and Intensive Care (AIC) journal.

Have you experienced an unplanned near miss or adverse event during anaesthesia?

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The Guardian – opinion – M&M meetings and the patient voice

The Guardian has recently published an opinion article by Australian oncologist, Dr Ranjana Srivastava, about the patient voice and Morbidity and Mortality meetings.