Anaesthesia
Journal of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland
Edited by:
Dr S. M. Yentis, London, UK
ISI Journal Citation Reports® Ranking: 2008: 8/22 Anesthesiology
Impact Factor: 2.178
Anaesthesia is the official journal of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland and is international in scope and comprehensive in coverage. It publishes original, peer-reviewed articles on all aspects of general and regional anaesthesia, intensive care and pain therapy, including research on equipment. The average time from submission to decision is an astonishing 14 days, and time from full acceptance to publication, is on average, under 3 months. Anaesthesia has a very high immediacy factor - this means that articles are cited very quickly after publication, increasing the relevancy of published articles to the anaesthesia community.
TopNews and Announcements
AABGI Guidelines are available to read, online, for free
- Suspected Anaphylactic Reactions Associated with Anaesthesia
- Infection Control in Anaesthesia
Read the Anaesthesia in Developing Countries supplement for free here
AAGBI / Wiley-Blackwell book club
All members of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland are entitled to a 20% discount off ANY John Wiley book purchased online. Contact Ellie Key to request your code.
Online Content Now Available Back to Volume 1
All back issues of this journal are available online. Click here to browse contents and abstracts. For further information on how to access these issues visit our Librarian Site.
The Correspondence Website
Join the debate today! Read, post, and reply to items of correspondence, relating to published articles, online. Each item of correspondence is screened by the editors and we will post all but the irrelevant or incomprehensible on the website. Visit www.anaesthesiacorrespondence.com.
From January 2010, selected correspondence submitted through the Correspondence website will be published in an issue of the journal.
Free Access in the Developing World
Free or low cost online access to this journal is available within institutions in the Developing World through Research4Life (the HINARI/AGORA/OARE initiatives).
Online Open
Authors of articles in this journal can now choose to make their articles open access and available free for all readers through the payment of an author fee. Read more. If you wish your paper to be OnlineOpen you are required to complete the combined payment and copyright licence form: Online Open Form.
NIH Public Access Mandate
For those interested in the Wiley-Blackwell policy on the NIH Public Access Mandate, please visit our policy statement.
Anaesthesia: Quick decision times and fast publication!
• Median time to first decision: 6 days
• Mean time to online publication: 61 days
TopHighlights
Read the Anaesthesia Safety and Human Factors virtual issue - available online now!
Anaesthetists have traditionally been the champions of safety in medical practice. This issue is a compilation of a sample of safety-related papers from Anaesthesia 2006-2008, and covers a wide range of issues across five areas:
• Reporting and Learning
• Safety in Practice
• Wrong Route Errors
• Simulation for Safety
• Monitoring for Adverse Events
Read the virtual issue today
Read David Bogod's choice of top 2009 articles FREE online:
My selection of papers from the 2009 issue, January to June, carries more than its fair share of review articles. I make no apologies for this; for today's hard-working and over-stretched anaesthetist, a high quality analysis of the literature relating to a topic of keen clinical interest can be worth more than any number of laboratory-based in vitro studies, however much the latter may attract the kudos and the big money grants.
REMIFENTANIL IN PAEDIATRIC ANAESTHETIC PRACTICE (P 301-308)
Remifentanil was one of those occasional drugs which appears on the scene, fascinates anaesthetists by its unique properties, but then languishes for a period while its place in the clinical armamentarium is determined. That time is now long gone, and remifentanil has become an integral part of adult practice. Drs Marsh and Hodkinson, in the March issue, explain where remifentanil sits with respect to paediatric anaesthesia, and particularly explore its advantages in neonates and infants.
SMOKING AND ANAESTHESIA: THE PHARMACOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS (P 179-186)
The impact of smoking on the respiratory system and its consequent impact on general anaesthesia is well understood by most anaesthetists, just as well since over one-fifth of the UK population are regular smokers. However, the interaction of the 4800 chemical components of cigarette smoke with drugs regularly used by anaesthetists is a fascinating topic which is still in the process of being unravelled, and Drs Sweeney and Grayling keep us up to date with progress in the February issue.
ANKYLOSING SPONDYLITIS: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS AND ANAESTHETIC IMPLICATIONS (P 540-548)
Ankylosing spondylitis has always been a challenge for the anaesthetist. In the May issue, however, Professor Kam and his colleague, Dr Woodward, go beyond the immediate airway problems to discuss the role of neurophysiological monitoring in providing early detection of spinal cord compromise, anti-tumour necrosis factor alpha agents in therapy, and the increased risk of infection imposed by this disease.
RISKS AND SIDE-EFFECTS OF INTRATHECAL MORPHINE COMBINED WITH SPINAL ANAESTHESIA: A META-ANALYSIS (P 643-651)
In the last of the featured reviews, Drs Gehling and Tryba look at the evidence surrounding the use of high-dose (³0.3 mg) and low-dose (< 0.3 mg) intrathecal morphine as a acomponent of spinal anaesthesia. As the risk:benefit analysis of postoperative epidural analgesia appears to become more closely balanced, increasing interest is being shown in spinal opioids, but the question of delayed respiratory depression continues to arise. These authors suggest that, while low-dose morphine is associated with a significant increase in nausea, vomiting and pruritus, this is more than offset by the quality of analgesia compared to systemic opioids, and the risk of respiratory depression in these two groups is similar.
GUIDELINES AND THE ADOPTION OF 'LIPID RESCUE' THERAPY FOR LOCAL ANAESTHETIC TOXICITY (P 122-125)
I also make no apologies for highlighting two areas of personal interest, largely because I know they are shared by many others. The continuing story of lipid rescue for local anaesthetic toxicity has now led to the production of national guidelines in the UK and, in a fascinating insight into how publication can eventually result in changes in clinical practice, Dr Picard and his colleagues illustrate an unusually rapid adoption of a novel and potentially life-saving treatment.
LITIGATION RELATED TO ANAESTHESIA: AN ANALYSIS OF CLAIMS AGAINST THE NHS IN ENGLAND 1995-2007 (P 706-718)
Finally, litigation is an ever-present threat when we fail to fulfil our patients' expectations. Our colleagues in the USA have for many years had access to close-claim analyses of negligence claims to find out 'the claim du jour' but this useful source of information has not been available in the UK. With the advent of the National Health Service Litigation Authority (NHSLA), data for negligence claims in anaesthesia are now available, albeit in a rather crude format, and Dr Cook and his colleagues have gone to some trouble to clean up the database and tell us how and where we are letting patients down.
I hope that these papers give you as much pleasure and information as they did me.
David Bogod
