To the Editor:-The practice of modern anesthesia equips the practitioner with operating tables capable of multiple maneuvers, including easy rotations up to 180 [degree sign]. We recently learned that a transport gurney can assume similar flexibility.

At the conclusion of a surgery in our ambulatory surgery center, we unintentionally transferred a patient to the transport gurney with his head oriented at the foot of the gurney. Rather than move the patient back to the operative Table orbring into the room a second properly oriented gurney, our orderlies freed the mattress of its fasteners and guided us through the simple mattress rotation technique pictured below in Figure 1and Figure 2. We offer this helpful approach as a small “clinical pearl” to the reader.

Figure 1. With four people performing the maneuver, the intravenous solution is placed on the patient and the ends of the mattress are lifted and freed of their Velcro [trade mark sign] fasteners.
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Figure 1. With four people performing the maneuver, the intravenous solution is placed on the patient and the ends of the mattress are lifted and freed of their Velcro [trade mark sign] fasteners.

Figure 1. With four people performing the maneuver, the intravenous solution is placed on the patient and the ends of the mattress are lifted and freed of their Velcro [trade mark sign] fasteners.
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Figure 1. With four people performing the maneuver, the intravenous solution is placed on the patient and the ends of the mattress are lifted and freed of their Velcro [trade mark sign] fasteners.

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Figure 2. With both ends of the mattress flexed, the patient and mattress are rotated 180 [degree sign] on their central axis to correctly align the patient on the gurney.
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Figure 2. With both ends of the mattress flexed, the patient and mattress are rotated 180 [degree sign] on their central axis to correctly align the patient on the gurney.

Figure 2. With both ends of the mattress flexed, the patient and mattress are rotated 180 [degree sign] on their central axis to correctly align the patient on the gurney.
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Figure 2. With both ends of the mattress flexed, the patient and mattress are rotated 180 [degree sign] on their central axis to correctly align the patient on the gurney.

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Geoffrey Lighthall, M.D. Ph.D.

J. C. Gerancher, M.D.

Department of Anesthesia; Stanford Health Services; Stanford, California;geoffL@leland.stanford.edu

(Accepted for publication March 20, 1998.)

Copyright 1999 by the American Society of Anesthesiologists.