Anesthetists’ Clinical Knowledge Concerning Malignant Hyperthermia

Abstract

Background: Malignant hyperthermia (MH) is a rare anesthetic emergency. It has been estimated to occur in between 1:10,000 and 1:150,000 general anesthetics but these estimates are subject to error for a variety of reasons. These include incomplete reporting of suspected reactions; failure to confirm diagnosis with definitive testing; inaccurate estimates of the total number of general anesthetics given to the relevant population (the denominator); and use of administrative databases to identify cases (Hopkins, et al., 2020).

Objectives: The study aims to identify nursing students’ perception level concerning distinguishing between nursing diagnoses terms according to nursing diagnoses textbook and common clinical terms at Al-Imam Al-Hussein Medical City and Al-Hindiya Teaching Hospital (major operating rooms for both two hospitals) in Holy Kerbala’a City.

Methodology: A Descriptive quantitative approach design is conducted to assess anesthetists’ clinical knowledge concerning malignant hyperthermia. The study has started on 26th of December, 2023 and ended on 25th of May, 2024. The study instrument consisted of two parts; part one deals with the characteristics of the sample which of age, gender, level of education, years of experience as an anesthetist, and participation in education course concerning malignant hyperthermia. Part two deals with anesthetists’ clinical knowledge concerning malignant hyperthermia which was 20 items. The validity of instrument was obtained from 5 experts in specialty. The data analysis was done by using SPSS program version 23. the statistical methods which used in present study is descriptive and inferential statistics.        

Results: the findings of present study about anesthetists' clinical knowledge concerning malignant hyperthermia revealed that the agree answer was 73.63%, while the disagree answer was 26.37 %.

Conclusions: the study concluded that anesthetists' clinical knowledge concerning malignant hyperthermia is very good.

Recommendations: The researcher recommends ensure to apply the present study on all anesthetists in Holy Kerbala’a City Hospitals so as to achieve an evidence based knowledge concerning malignant hyperthermia.