Anesthesiology
-
Editorial Comment
Do Anesthesiologists Have a Role in Promoting Equitable Health Care?
-
Chronic postsurgical pain is a common complication of surgery. The role of psychologic risk factors like depression and anxiety is substantially understudied in cardiac surgery. This study sought to identify perioperative factors associated with chronic pain at 3, 6, and 12 months after cardiac surgery. The authors hypothesize that baseline psychologic vulnerabilities have a negative influence on chronic postsurgical pain. ⋯ Nearly one in three patients undergoing cardiac surgery reported pain at 3 months of follow-up, with approximately 15% reporting persistent pain at 1 yr. Female sex, pre-existing chronic pain, and baseline depression were associated with postsurgical pain scores across all three time periods.
-
Opioids are effective analgesics, but they can have harmful adverse effects, such as addiction and potentially fatal respiratory depression. Naloxone is currently the only available treatment for reversing the negative effects of opioids, including respiratory depression. ⋯ Long-acting opioids, and those with a high affinity at the µ-opioid receptor and/or slow receptor dissociation kinetics, are particularly resistant to the effects of naloxone. In this review, the authors examine the pharmacology of naloxone and its safety and limitations in reversing opioid-induced respiratory depression under different circumstances, including its ability to prevent cardiac arrest.