Search

Monitoring during cardiopulmonary bypass should conform to the standards recommended by the joint working group of the Society of Clinical Perfusion Scientists of Great Britain and Ireland, Association for Cardiothoracic Anaesthesia and Critical Care (ACTACC), and Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery in Great Britain and Ireland.^7,19

There should be a planned maintenance and replacement programme for all anaesthetic equipment.^33,34

An intraaortic counter pulsation balloon pump should be available.²⁰

Equipment for temporary pacing should be available.

Fibreoptic bronchoscopy should be immediately available for all cases where lung isolation is used.²¹

Dedicated equipment for jet ventilation should be available for interventional airway procedures.²⁴

Designated thoracic, cardiac or cardiothoracic wards should be considered.

Cardiac and thoracic surgery should ideally be performed in dedicated operating rooms. It is unlikely that an operating room will be kept available at all times for emergencies. Local arrangements for urgent and emergency cases should be in place.

In some centres, selected cardiac surgical patients are managed in facilities other than designated ICUs following surgery. These are variously referred to as the high dependency unit (HDU), cardiac recovery or cardiac fast-track unit. These areas aim to minimise the period of mechanical ventilation. The equipment, monitoring and staffing requirements for such a facility are no less than the requirements...

Facilities should be available for the decontamination and safe storage of transoesophageal echocardiography probes in line with local and national recommendations.^25,26,27 There should also be a method to report, archive and retrieve all echocardiography studies performed in cardiac theatres.  Major complications related to transoesophageal echocardiography should be monitored.²⁸