Anesthesiology
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Central to the tenet of informed consent is the quality of disclosure of information by the investigator and the understanding thereof by the research subject or his or her surrogate. This study was designed to measure parents' understanding of the elements of informed consent for clinical studies in which their children had been approached to participate. ⋯ Parents approached for permission to allow their child to participate in a research study had less than optimal understanding of the elements of consent. As such, investigators must make every effort to enhance understanding and ensure that parents have sufficient information to make informed decisions regarding their child's participation in research studies.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Sustained prolongation of the QTc interval after anesthesia with sevoflurane in infants during the first 6 months of life.
Sevoflurane, an inhalational anesthetic frequently administered to infants, prolongs the QT interval of the electrocardiogram in adults. A long QT interval resulting in fatal arrhythmia may also be responsible for some cases of sudden death in infants. As the QT interval increases during the second month of life and returns to the values recorded at birth by the sixth month, we evaluated the effect of sevoflurane on the QT interval during and after anesthesia in this particular population. ⋯ Despite a shorter elimination time than better known inhalational anesthetics, sevoflurane induction and anesthesia results in sustained prolongations of QTc and JTc interval in infants in the first 6 months of life. Electrocardiogram monitoring until the QTc interval has returned to preanesthetic values may increase safety after sevoflurane anesthesia.
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Nitrous oxide (N2O) and propofol exhibit directionally opposite effects on the cerebral circulation, vasodilation and vasoconstriction, respectively. The authors investigated an interaction between the two anesthetic agents on the dynamic cerebrovascular response to step changes in end-tidal pressure of carbon dioxide (PetCO2) in humans. ⋯ Propofol and N2O, when one is added to the other, produce similar dynamic FV(MCA) responses to sudden changes in PetCO2. Addition of each anesthetic slows the dynamic response and produces the response whose magnitude is proportional to the baseline FV(MCA).
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Many studies have demonstrated that either glutamate -methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists or opioid receptor agonists provide antinociception. Spinal coadministration of an NMDA receptor antagonist and morphine has an additive action for control of various pain states in animal models. The current study examined spinal coadministration of low doses of NMDA receptor antagonist, D-(-)-2-Amino-5-phosphonovalerate (D-APV), and mu-opioid receptor agonist, morphine sulfate (MS), in reducing visceral nociception using an acute bradykinin induced pancreatitis model in rats. ⋯ Spinal administration of combined doses of NMDA receptor antagonist, D-APV, and MS reversed three behavioral responses to induction of an acute pancreatitis model. These results suggest that in the clinical management of visceral pain, such as pancreatitis, restricted usage of glutamate antagonists might be useful as adjuvant potentiation at the onset of morphine therapy.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Correlation of approximate entropy, bispectral index, and spectral edge frequency 95 (SEF95) with clinical signs of "anesthetic depth" during coadministration of propofol and remifentanil.
Several studies relating electroencephalogram parameter values to clinical endpoints using a single (mostly hypnotic) drug at relatively low levels of central nervous system depression (sedation) have been published. However, the usefulness of a parameter derived from the electroencephalogram for clinical anesthesia largely depends on its ability to predict the response to stimuli of different intensity or painfulness under a combination of a hypnotic and an (opioid) analgesic. This study was designed to evaluate the predictive performance of spectral edge frequency 95 (SEF95), BIS, and approximate entropy for the response to increasingly intense stimuli under different concentrations of both propofol and remifentanil in the therapeutic range. ⋯ Approximate entropy revealed informations on hypnotic and analgesic endpoints using coadministration of propofol and remifentanil comparable to bispectral index, SEF95, and the combination of drug concentrations.