Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Dec 1995
Decreases in anesthesia-controlled time cannot permit one additional surgical operation to be reliably scheduled during the workday.
We tested whether anesthesiologists can decrease operating room (OR) costs by working more quickly. Anesthesia-controlled time (ACT) was defined as the sum of 1) the time starting when the patient enters an OR until preparation or surgical positioning can begin plus 2) the time starting when the dressing is finished and ending when the patient leaves the OR. Case time was defined as the time starting when one patient undergoing an operation leaves an OR and ending when the next patient undergoing the same operation leaves the OR. ⋯ Statistical analysis of measured OR times showed that ACt would have to be decreased by more than 100% to permit one additional scheduled, short (30-min) operation to be performed in an OR during an 8-h workday after a prior series of cases, each lasting more than 45 min. Anesthesiologists alone cannot reasonably decrease case times sufficiently to permit one extra case to be reliably scheduled during a workday. Methods to decrease ACT (e.g., using preoperative intravenous catheter teams, procedure rooms, and/or shorter acting drugs) may simply increase costs.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Dec 1995
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialEpidural clonidine or sufentanil for intraoperative and postoperative analgesia.
This study contrasts the efficacy and side effects of epidural clonidine and sufentanil in the perioperative period. Using a randomized, prospective, double-blind study design, 40 patients undergoing abdominal surgery under propofol/nitrous oxide anesthesia were enrolled. Before anesthesia, an epidural catheter was inserted at the L1-L2 interspace. ⋯ Plasma clonidine and sufentanil concentrations were measured after 20 min and 6, 12, and 24 h. The number of reinjections of propofol (n = 1.6 +/- 1.6 in Group 1 vs 6.5 +/- 4.0 in Group 2) and of IV sufentanil (n = 0.6 +/- 0.8 in Group 1 vs 3.8 +/- 3.7 in Group 2) was significantly reduced (P < 0.001) in the epidural clonidine group. In the early postoperative period, pain scores and rescue analgesic requirements were very low in both groups.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)