Guidelines and cardiac anaesthetists

Guidelines for cardiac anaesthesia could reduce irrational variation in practice and so improve cardiac surgical outcome. In October 1994, a postal survey was undertaken to determine the views and attitudes of consultant cardiac anaesthetists in the United Kingdom towards guidelines. One hundred and forty correctly completed questionnaires were returned (minimum response rate 64%). Eighty-nine per cent believed that guidelines were of value in medicine whilst only 21% wanted national guidelines for cardiac anaesthesia. Responses to other parts of the questionnaire showed that those against guidelines for cardiac anaesthesia were less positive towards their advantages and more negative to their disadvantages compared with those in their favour. The majority of cardiac anaesthetists, although believing them to be valuable in medicine, do not want guidelines for cardiac anaesthesia because they are concerned that guidelines would be inflexible and would neither reduce variation in, nor improve the quality of, cardiac anaesthesia.