Anesthesiology
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Using Pennsylvania Medicare claims from 1995 to 1996, the authors previously reported that anesthesia procedure length appears longer in blacks than whites. In a new study using a different and larger data set, the authors now examine whether body mass index (BMI), not available in Medicare claims, explains this difference. The authors also examine the relative contributions of surgical and anesthesia times. ⋯ Controlling for patient characteristics, BMI, and hospital, elder black Medicare patients experienced slightly but significantly longer procedure length than their closely matched white controls. Procedure length difference was almost completely due to surgery, not anesthesia.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Influence of nitrous oxide anesthesia, B-vitamins, and MTHFR gene polymorphisms on perioperative cardiac events: the vitamins in nitrous oxide (VINO) randomized trial.
Nitrous oxide causes an acute increase in plasma homocysteine that is more pronounced in patients with the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T or A1298C gene variant. In this randomized controlled trial, the authors sought to determine whether patients carrying the MTHFR C677T or A1298C variant had a higher risk for perioperative cardiac events after nitrous oxide anesthesia and whether this risk could be mitigated by B-vitamins. ⋯ Neither MTHFR C677T and A1298C gene variant, nor acute homocysteine increase are associated with perioperative cardiac troponin increase after nitrous oxide anesthesia. B-vitamins blunt nitrous oxide-induced homocysteine increase but have no effect on cardiac troponin I increase.