Anesthesiology
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
A comparison of intrathecal fentanyl and sufentanil for labor analgesia.
The use of intrathecal opioids for labor analgesia continues to gain popularity, but there are limited data to guide this use. Previously, the authors established the ED50 for 60 min of labor analgesia from intrathecal sufentanil using an up-down sequential allocation study design. The current study first establishes an ED50 for intrathecal fentanyl using this same study design to establish an intrathecal potency ratio for fentanyl and sufentanil and then uses this ratio to compare the efficacy, duration of analgesia, and side effects from comparable doses of intrathecal fentanyl and sufentanil. ⋯ The relative potency of intrathecal sufentanil to fentanyl for labor analgesia is 4.4:1. When using intrathecal opioids alone for early labor analgesia, 8 microg sufentanil produces labor analgesia lasting approximately 25 min longer than from 36 microg fentanyl, without a statistically significant increase in side effects. However, when making a choice between fentanyl and sufentanil, one must consider other important factors, such as the higher cost of sufentanil and the greater risk of dosing error due to the higher potency of sufentanil compared with fentanyl.
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Multicenter Study
What sample sizes are required for pooling surgical case durations among facilities to decrease the incidence of procedures with little historical data?
Better predictions of each case's duration would reduce operating room labor costs and patient waiting times. A barrier to using historical case duration data to predict the duration of future cases is the absence for some cases of previous data for the same scheduled procedure from the same facility. The authors examined sample size requirements for pooling case duration data from several facilities to create a 90% chance of having case duration data for almost all procedures. ⋯ The lack of historical case duration data for scheduled procedures is an important cause of inaccuracy in predicting case durations. However, millions of cases probably would be required to provide historical case duration data for almost all procedures.