Nurse anesthesia students Brittany Trethewey, Stephan Bodnar, Brooks Bukowy and Jaclyn Migliarese won first prize for their poster titled "International Consensus Meeting Recommendations for Lung Protective Ventilation" at the 2019 American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) Annual Congress in Chicago this August. Their co-authors on the poster included Professor Emeritus (Retired) Charles Vacchiano and Duke Hospital anesthesia staff Ryland Elliot, Chad Ragains, Amanda Woodward, Erica Harris and Christopher C. Young, MD.

Poster Summary:

Approximately 5% of patients who undergo general anesthesia develop a postoperative pulmonary complication (PPC) and 1 in 5 patients die as a result. Conventional mechanical ventilation induces lung injury leading to PPCs. Studies suggest that lung protective ventilation (LPV) strategies can reduce the risk of PPCs and improve patient outcomes. An international consensus meeting was held in Frankfurt, Germany on October 1, 2018. This meeting brought together 7 international experts and 6 researchers, 4 SRNAs in Duke University’s Nurse Anesthesia Program, to establish consensus guidelines for intraoperative LPV strategies using current literature and, when studies are lacking or conflicting, using expert opinion.