Breast Cancer Foundation NZ
Breast Screen Aotearoa
NZ Association of Plastic Surgeons
General Practice NZ
Physiotherapy NZ
NZ Nurses Organisation
College of Nurses Aotearoa
Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
Dear Colleagues,
Cancer Society NZ
NZ Society for Oncology
Royal NZ College of GPs
Melanoma NZ
NZ Private Surgical Hospitals Association
Cancer Nurses College
NZ Association of General Surgeons
We, at the New Zealand Society of Anaesthetists (NZSA), would like to share with you two new documents released by the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA). These documents relate to the care of people who’ve previously had lymph node surgery.
A frequent conundrum when providing care for patients who have previously had axillary lymph node surgery is where intravenous access and blood pressure monitoring devices can be placed. Often, from the start of a patient’s journey through cancer treatment, they have been informed that they should not have these on the same arm as their lymph node removal. Many hospitals have “Lymphoedema Alert” arm bands that the patient wears throughout their perioperative journey or medical admission to prevent this from happening.
Whilst this can often be achieved without causing patient harm, there are situations where risk or harm is created by following this advice.
These new documents from ANZCA, linked below, help provide up-to-date and evidence-based guidance when caring for this group of patients. The working group for these documents included anaesthesia, surgery, breast care nursing and consumer representation.
• Clinician information: https://www.anzca.edu.au/resources/professionaldocuments/professional-document-appendix-topics/appendix-1-pg18(a).pdf
• Patient information: https://www.anzca.edu.au/resources/patient-information-factsheets/anaesthesia-factsheets/breast-surgery-factsheet_v2.pdf
The College has shared these documents with fellows and anaesthetic trainees. We hope that your organisations will also consider sharing them within your networks and communication channels. By doing this, our aim is to provide consistent advice and recommendations for patients throughout their treatment journey and beyond.
If there are other organisations that support clinicians to care for this patient group that has not been included in the addressee list above, please inform us so we can also share this with them.
Ngā mihi, Dr Morgan Edwards Specialist Anaesthetist President of the New Zealand Society of Anaesthetists