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Introduction: Every year, five million people around the world experience an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) and less than 40 % receive any assistance before the arrival of the Emergency Medical Services (EMS). Ambulance operators (AO) take care of people experiencing an OHCA, stabilize and then transfer them. In Medellín, Colombia, there is a public AO and several private providers, but the information about an OHCA and the operational characteristics during the response to the event are limited.
 Objective: To estimate the incidence of OHCA and to explore the factors associated with survival after the event in Medellín city.
 Methods: Retrospective, population-based cohort study. All the medical records of patients experiencing an OHCA who were assessed and treated by ambulance operators, (AO) of the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and private agencies in Medellin city were reviewed. Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis and the annual incidence of the event standardized for the general population was estimated. Potential survival-associated factors reported as OR with their corresponding 95% CI were explored.
 Results: A total of 1,447 patient records with OHCA between 2018 and 2019 were analyzed. The event incidence rate for the number of cases assessed was 28.1 (95 % CI 26.0-30.3) and 26.9 (95 % CI 24.9-29.1) cases per 100,000 inhabitants/year for 2018 and 2019, respectively; the incidence rate of treated OHCA was 2.6 (95 % CI 2.0-3.3) and 3.2 (95 % CI 2.5-4.0) per 100,000 inhabitants/year, for 2018 and 2019. Survival on arrival at hospitals of treated cases was 14.2 % (95 % CI 5.5-22.8) and 15.5 % (95 % CI 7.4-23.5) for 2018 and 2019, respectively.
 Conclusion: This study portrays the operating and care characteristics of the population experiencing OHCA in Medellín city. The incidence rate of the event and the survival were lower than those reported in the literature.

During the past three decades the world has been witness to an alarming increase in the shortage of drugs and biomedical products in the field of anesthesia and surgical care. This situation can be particularly challenging when there are no therapeutic alternatives available, as is the case with some supplies and drugs for perioperative use. Anesthesiologists, who play a crucial role in the preparation of the drugs they administer, are particularly aware of these shortages. The reasons for these shortages are diverse and involve problems in supply, demand and government regulation. Among the causes identified are the increase in demand, bidding systems and the sustainability challenges faced by pharmaceutical companies. It is essential to understand these causes in order to seek strategies to reduce the risk of shortages of medicines and supplies. Addressing this challenge requires improving supply chain management, fostering transparency in information on stock-outs, promoting local production of medicines, and strengthening procurement and distribution regulations and policies. The solution to this problem requires a comprehensive and collaborative approach, with multiple stakeholders working together to ensure adequate access to needed medications in the anesthesia and surgical care setting.

Introduction: Low-dose ketamine infusions have shown analgesic effectiveness for the management of postoperative pain. The impact of low-dose ketamine infusions on cardiovascular response is dose-dependent and requires a better knowledge about its effects on this population.
 Objective: To conduct a systematic review to describe changes in systolic, diastolic and mean arterial pressure, and heart rate 24, 48 and 72 hours after surgery.
 Methods: Randomized, controlled trials were reviewed in the Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMBASE, SciELO, Lilacs and grey literature on low-dose ketamine infusions for the study variables. The quality of the studies was assessed using the Cochrane’s risk of bias tool.
 Results: Six randomized, controlled trials with 641 patients were included. Low-quality evidence was found suggestive of a lack of certainty of any significant differences in the systolic blood pressure variables at 24 hours (mean standard deviation -1.00, 95 % CI: -7.27 to 5.27). A statistically significant higher mean heart rate at 24 hours was identified in the low-dose ketamine infusion group, (mean standard deviation 1.64 95 % CI: 0.38 to 2.90) which did not reach clinical significance. A lower pain level and less use of opioids was identified in the low-dose ketamine infusion group.
 Conclusion: Low quality evidence was found, suggesting that low-dose ketamine infusions are not associated with significant changes in blood pressure or heart rate 24 – 48 hours after surgery. It is important to individualize cardiovascular risk for each case, before initiating treatment.

Postoperative acute kidney injury is an underdiagnosed condition. Its incidence is variable and depends on demographic, clinical, and surgical stress-associated factors; hence the pathophysiology is multifactorial. It is extremely important to acknowledge those risk factors early and use tools to estimate the risk of developing the condition, in order to adopt perioperative measures to mitigate its occurrence and impact. Some of the complications resulting from this condition include prolonged ICU stay, higher susceptibility for infections, hospitalization-related complications, progression to acute and chronic kidney failure, and even the need for transient or permanent renal replacement therapies (RRT) in addition to diseases that increase the cardiovascular risk, such as systemic high blood pressure and/or coronary heart disease that result in increased comorbidities and mortality, with subsequent increases in healthcare costs, lower quality of life and increased burden of the disease in the short and long term. A systematic search of the literature was conducted in PubMed, Google Schoolar, and Lilacs, under the terms MeSh and DeCs using Boolean operators; a review was conducted of the summary of the articles identified and 57 of them were selected for their comprehensive reading. This narrative review summarizes the relevant information on this pathology for prevention and identification purposes, for the adequate management of patients undergoing major non-cardiac surgery.

Patient safety is an essential component of quality healthcare, which is what the general population is constantly demanding worldwide. Consequently, ensuring quality healthcare should not be a matter of clinical interest only but a public health priority so that all actions planned or implemented may have an impact at all levels and ensure intersectoral support to help the population remain safe when seeking and receiving health services. The definition and implementation of patient safety are currently circumscribed to the institutional setting. This article aims to present data that can help put into perspective the existing gaps pertaining to patient safety definition and fields of action, and conclude that there is room to work in public health in order to close those gaps. This requires understanding the complexities of the interactions between determinants of harm outside the physical setting where care is provided. These include community-level work, incorporation of knowledge from other disciplines in order to account for coverage, access and health outcomes, design strategies to counteract the impact that the absence of effective patient and people safety measures have on the general population and, in particular, on people differentially affected by the social determinants of health.

Introduction: The scientific literature supports the limited effect of the Advance Directives Document (ADD) in clinical decision-making. There are implementation barriers that prevent the fulfillment its purpose. The content of the ADD has not been explored in Colombia.
 Objective: To describe the contents of the ADD used in the pain and palliative care services.
 Methods. Cross-sectional study. Based on the national legislation and the rights that may be included in an ADD as described in the scientific literature, a checklist was designed with 20 variables to assess the forms, collecting data on the legal validity criteria and the contents for specific clinical and ethical directives. A predefined scale was used to describe the overall content of the form.
 Results: A total of 24 forms around the country were analyzed; the most comprehensive document included 14 of the 20 variables evaluated. In accordance with the definition used, 70 % of the forms had a maximum of 10 variables and were classified as “low content”. Four forms were not formalized and only the forms formalized before the treating physician met the legal standard. 50 % of the forms included closed statements.
 Conclusions: The ADD forms exhibit a number of inadequacies in terms of the legal and clinical criteria for a high quality content, leading to difficulties for their applicability in the clinical setting. In Colombia, a standard form validated by the palliative care associations is required.

Introduction: Over the past few months, ChatGPT has raised a lot of interest given its ability to perform complex tasks through natural language and conversation. However, its use in clinical decision-making is limited and its application in the field of anesthesiology is unknown.
 Objective: To assess ChatGPT’s basic and clinical reasoning and its learning ability in a performance test on general and specific anesthesia topics.
 Methods: A three-phase assessment was conducted. Basic knowledge of anesthesia was assessed in the first phase, followed by a review of difficult airway management and, finally, measurement of decision-making ability in ten clinical cases. The second and the third phases were conducted before and after feeding ChatGPT with the 2022 guidelines of the American Society of Anesthesiologists on difficult airway management.
 Results: On average, ChatGPT succeded 65% of the time in the first phase and 48% of the time in the second phase. Agreement in clinical cases was 20%, with 90% relevance and 10% error rate. After learning, ChatGPT improved in the second phase, and was correct 59% of the time, with agreement in clinical cases also increasing to 40%.
 Conclusions: ChatGPT showed acceptable accuracy in the basic knowledge test, high relevance in the management of specific difficult airway clinical cases, and the ability to improve after learning.

Introduction: The minimum number of procedures required to be performed during anesthesia training has not been officially defined in Colombia. Although a number is no guarantee of acquired competencies, it does indicate the level of opportunity offered by the different programs. This study describes the practical training afforded to residents in a graduate anesthesia program in Colombia, and compares its results with international standards.
 Objective: Describe exposure to procedures performed by residents enrolled in a three-year anesthesia specialization program in Colombia between 2015 and 2020, and compare with the standards proposed by ASCOFAME and ACGME.
 Methods: Descriptive, cross-sectional study which included residents who did their specialization in a Colombian anesthesia program between 2015 and 2020. Complexity, anesthesia techniques, invasive monitoring and airway approach were described. Finally a descriptive comparison was made with the published references of the Colombian Association of Medical Schools (ASCOFAME) and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).
 Results: The results for 10 residents were included. Each resident had a median of 978 cases (IQR 942-1120), corresponding to 25 surgical specialties, the most frequent being general surgery (18%), orthopedics (16%), pediatric surgery (19%), and obstetrics (10.8%). According to the American Society of Anesthesiology (ASA) classification, the majority of patients were ASA II (39.63%) and ASA III (28.4%). Adequate exposure was achieved in 11 of the 15 categories proposed by ACGME and in 6 of the 15 proposed by ASCOFAME.
 Conclusions: A detailed description of the practice component acquired by the residents during their three years of training was obtained. This baseline provides insight into the national landscape and allows to describe the relationship with international standards.

After 70 years of the formalization of medical specialties in Colombia, very little progress has been made in the educational models for the acquisition of clinical competencies in these postgraduate programs.
 Furthermore, although there is already a law on human resources in health, the Colombian medical education system lacks specific regulations on the training of health professionals (physicians) in the different medical specialty programs offered in the country.
 Likewise, at present, factors such as the financial crisis of public hospitals, the limited number of accredited hospitals and the growing number of medical schools and specialization programs, affect the comprehensive and equal development of medical competencies of professionals who are trained as specialists in the different postgraduate medical programs offered in Colombia. 
 In view of the above, the purpose of this article is to present a proposal for postgraduate medical education that prioritizes the adequate acquisition of competencies over compliance with the time required to complete the curricula of the different medical specialties. However, this involves several prerequisites: a regulatory body in charge of overseeing and monitoring the training of medical residents or specialists in the country; strong training in university teaching for professors practicing in medical schools and university hospitals; the standardization of the graduates profile; adequate financing of university hospitals, as well as appropriate support in the process of accreditation as such, and the self-evaluation and continuous improvement of postgraduate medical programs.