Surgical innovation
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Surgical innovation · Jun 2009
Randomized Controlled TrialA randomized controlled trial of preperitoneal bupivacaine instillation for reducing pain following laparoscopic inguinal herniorrhaphy.
The efficacy of bupivacaine instillation into preperitoneal space following laparoscopic herniorrhaphy for postoperative pain reduction is still in controversy. A randomized controlled trial was conducted to determine the efficacy of bupivacaine instillation. The 40 patients, who had an inguinal hernia with no complication, unilateral or bilateral and recurrence or no recurrence after previous hernia repair, were randomly assigned to receive bupivacaine (n = 19) and normal saline (n = 21). ⋯ For the bupivacaine and placebo group, mean pain scores were 3.5 versus 5.2 (P = .059), 2.9 versus 4.5 (P = .117), 2.1 versus 3.2 (P = .101), 1.5 versus 2.7 (P = .145), and 1.6 versus 2.0 (P = .672) after the 1st, 2nd, 6th, 12th, and 24th hour, respectively. Complications developed in 4 patients in the bupivacaine group and 7 patients in the placebo group after 3 months follow-up time. There is no strong evidence to confirm that bupivacaine instillation into preperitoneal space after laparoscopic herniorrhaphy can reduce postoperative pain.
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Surgical innovation · Jun 2009
Comparative StudyCauses of cancellations on the day of surgery at two major university hospitals.
Cancellations of elective cases on the day of surgery waste valuable operating-room time. The authors studied cancellations at an American hospital and a Norwegian university hospital to test (a) whether the quality of hospital administrative data on cancellations is sufficient for meaningful comparative analysis and (b) whether causes of cancellations at these 2 major academic hospitals are comparable. Large retrospective cause-of-cancellation data sets were obtained from each hospital. ⋯ The American hospital cancelled 16.52% of all cases between May 1, 2003, and April 30, 2004. Administrative data may give a rough picture of causes of cancellations. However, most findings at either of the hospitals do not translate easily to the other.