Burnout in anesthesiology

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Burnout is a chronic condition caused by high levels of stress and anesthesiology is a stressful medical specialty with more vulnerability to burnout. The aim of this study is to review the characteristics and impact of burnout in anesthesiology. CONTENTS: In this review, the stressors and risk factors, manifestations, assessment, complications, management and prevention of burnout as well as the inconsistent research found in the state-of-art are approached. CONCLUSIONS: Anesthesiologists are in a high-risk group to develop burnout, with different manifestations and consequences such as suicide or medical errors. Although there is no specific treatment yet, there are a lot of helpful measures to cope this condition. Prevention is considered an important step in order to reduce the prevalence of burnout.