Anesthesia Provider Awareness of Sugammadex Hypersensitivity: Patients Outside the Sugammabox

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this quality improvement (QI) project was to increase anesthesia providers’ knowledge of sugammadex perioperative hypersensitivity (POH) through an educational seminar at Oroville Hospital (OH). Background: POH is an unpredictable reaction linked to common medications used by anesthesia providers. Of these medications, several are directly connected to the administration of sugammadex, a novel neuromuscular blocking (NMB) reversal agent. The severity of POH can present as mild cutaneous reactions to severe anaphylactic reactions resulting in cardiovascular collapse and death. The worldwide incidence of POH and perioperative anaphylaxis (POA) occurs during 1:355 to 1:18600 and 1:1250 to 1:2000 procedures, respectively (Garvey et al., 2019a; Gonzales-Estrada et al., 2023). POH reactions are commonly missed due to general symptoms disguised by anesthesia drapes, and overlooked as normal anesthetic side effects. Anesthesia providers play a valuable role in the timely assessment, diagnosis, and intervention to prevent future reoccurrence. Methods: The design of this quality improvement project was a pre- and post-survey educational seminar to assess OH anesthesia providers’ knowledge of sugammadex POH assessment, diagnosis, and intervention. The project implementor (PI) created and recorded a PowerPoint presentation, collected demographic data, assess current knowledge, and assessed post-training knowledge. Results: Anesthesia providers watched the presentation to determine, and then the post-survey knowledge survey were analyzed to determine if the presentation increased anesthesia providers’ sugammadex POH knowledge.