Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Nov 2005
The effects of intraarticular resiniferatoxin in experimental knee-joint arthritis.
In this study we sought to determine whether an intraarticular administration of a vanilloid agonist resiniferatoxin (RTX) produces an analgesic effect in experimental arthritis. Knee joint inflammation was induced in rats by intraarticular carrageenan (2%, 30 microL). Pain score and left/right hind leg weight distribution ratio were used to assess pain behavior. ⋯ Ultrasound scanning revealed no RTX-induced decrease of the intraarticular area. The experiments demonstrated that intraarticular RTX inhibits pain behavior in knee-joint arthritis and that this effect is dose-dependent. These results suggest a new direction for peripheral analgesia.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Nov 2005
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialSupplemental intravenous crystalloid administration does not reduce the risk of surgical wound infection.
Wound perfusion and oxygenation are important determinants of the development of postoperative wound infections. Supplemental fluid administration significantly increases tissue oxygenation in surrogate wounds in the subcutaneous tissue of the upper arm in perioperative surgical patients. We tested the hypothesis that supplemental fluid administration during and after elective colon resections decreases the incidence of postoperative wound infections. ⋯ Of the patients given small fluid administration, 14 had surgical wound infections; 11 given large fluid therapy had infections, P = 0.46. ASEPSIS wound-healing scores were similar in both groups: 7 +/- 16 (small volume) versus 8 +/- 14 (large volume), P = 0.70. Our results suggest that supplemental hydration in the range tested does not impact wound infection rate.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Nov 2005
Doxapram only slightly reduces the shivering threshold in healthy volunteers.
We determined the effects of doxapram on the major autonomic thermoregulatory responses in humans. Nine healthy volunteers were studied on 2 days: control and doxapram (IV infusion to a plasma concentration of 2.4 +/- 0.8, 2.5 +/- 0.9, and 2.6 +/- 1.1 microg/mL at the sweating, vasoconstriction, and shivering thresholds, respectively). Each day, skin and core temperatures were increased to provoke sweating, then reduced to elicit peripheral vasoconstriction and shivering. ⋯ However, it significantly reduced the shivering threshold from 36.2 degrees +/- 0.5 degrees C to 35.7 degrees +/- 0.7 degrees C (P = 0.012). No sedation or symptoms of panic were observed on either study day. The observed reduction in the shivering threshold explains the drug's efficacy for treatment of postoperative shivering; however, a reduction of only 0.5 degrees C is unlikely to markedly facilitate induction of therapeutic hypothermia as a sole drug.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Nov 2005
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialThe efficacy of plethysmographic pulse wave amplitude as an indicator for intravascular injection of epinephrine-containing epidural test dose in anesthetized adults.
In this study, I evaluated the efficacy of plethysmographic pulse wave amplitude (PPWA) in detecting intravascular injection of a simulated epidural test dose containing 15 microg of epinephrine in adults during either sevoflurane or isoflurane inhaled anesthesia and compared its reliability to the classical heart rate (HR; positive if > or =10 bpm) and systolic blood pressure (SBP; positive if > or =15 mm Hg) criteria. Eighty patients were randomized to receive either 1 mean alveolar anesthetic concentration of sevoflurane or 1 mean alveolar anesthetic concentration of isoflurane (n = 40 for each anesthesia group). Patients in each anesthesia group microg of epinephrine IV or 3 mL of saline IV (n = 20 each). ⋯ Using this value, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive, and negative predictive values of PPWA were 100% in both anesthetic groups. On the contrary, sensitivities of 85% and 95% were obtained based on HR criterion in the sevoflurane and isoflurane patients, respectively, and a sensitivity of 90% was obtained in both anesthesia groups on the basis of SBP criterion. In conclusion, PPWA is a reliable alternative to conventional hemodynamic criteria for detection of an intravascular injection of epidural test dose.