ArticleBritish journal of anaesthesia2023
Standardised colour-coded compartmentalised syringe trays improve anaesthetic medication visual search and mitigate cognitive load.
Article in British journal of anaesthesia, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Multimodal colour modulation for cognitive enhancement in intelligent rehabilitation: a systematic review and translational guidance.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2026Pooled it
- Understanding Medication Errors in Intensive Care Settings and Operating Rooms-A Systematic Review.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Pooled it
- Rethinking Anesthesia Medication "Errors": The OR-SMART Patient Safety Learning Laboratory.Journal of patient safety · 2025Article
- Medication errors related to neuromuscular blocking agents: analysis of the French National Pharmacovigilance Database.British journal of anaesthesia · 2025Article
- Effects of colour-coded compartmentalised syringe trays on anaesthetic drug error detection under cognitive load.British journal of anaesthesia · 2024Article
- 5S solutions to promote medication efficiency and safety. Comment on Br J Anaesth 2023; 130: e416-8.British journal of anaesthesia · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAnaesthetic procedures are complex and subject to human error. Interventions to alleviate medication errors include organised syringe storage trays, but no standardised methods for drug storage have yet been widely implemented.
methodsWe used experimental psychology methods to explore the potential benefits of colour-coded compartmentalised trays compared with conventional trays in a visual search task. We hypothesised that colour-coded compartmentalised trays would reduce search time and improve error detection for both behavioural and eye-movement responses. We recruited 40 volunteers to identify syringe errors presented in pre-loaded trays for 16 trials in total: 12 error present and four error absent, with eight trials presented for each tray type.
resultsErrors were detected faster when presented in the colour-coded compartmentalised trays than in conventional trays (11.1 s vs 13.0 s, respectively; P=0.026). This finding was replicated for correct responses for error-absent trays (13.3 s vs 17.4 s, respectively; P=0.001) and in the verification time of error-absent trays (13.1 s vs 17.2 s, respectively; P=0.001). On error trials, eye-tracking measures revealed more fixations on the drug error for colour-coded compartmentalised trays (5.3 vs 4.3, respectively; P<0.001), whilst more fixations on the drug lists for conventional trays (8.3 vs 7.1, respectively; P=0.010). On error-absent trials, participants spent longer fixating on the conventional trials (7.2 s vs 5.6 s, respectively; P=0.002).
conclusionsColour-coded compartmentalisation enhanced visual search efficacy of pre-loaded trays. Reduced fixations and fixation times for the loaded tray were shown for colour-coded compartmentalised trays, indicating a reduction in cognitive load. Overall, colour-coded compartmentalised trays were associated with significant performance improvements when compared with conventional trays.
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