Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Mar 2012
PT-SAFE: a software tool for development and annunciation of medical audible alarms.
Recent reports by The Joint Commission as well as the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation have indicated that medical audible alarm effectiveness needs to be improved. Several recent studies have explored various approaches to improving the audible alarms, motivating the authors to develop real-time software capable of comparing such alarms. We sought to devise software that would allow for the development of a variety of audible alarm designs that could also integrate into existing operating room equipment configurations. The software is meant to be used as a tool for alarm researchers to quickly evaluate novel alarm designs. ⋯ These results suggest that this software tool provides a foundation for rapidly staging multiple audible alarm sets from the laboratory to a simulation environment for the purpose of evaluating novel alarm designs, thus producing valuable findings for medical audible alarm standardization.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Mar 2012
Comparative StudyDorsal root ganglion application of muscimol prevents hyperalgesia and stimulates myelin protein expression after sciatic nerve injury in rats.
Peripheral nerve injuries may result in debilitating pain that is poorly responsive to conventional treatment. Neuropathic pain induced by peripheral nerve injury is caused, in part, by ectopic discharges from the injury site or the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) resulting in enhanced central input and central hyperexcitability. A heterogeneous family of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)(A) channels is important in quieting neuronal excitability. We have recently reported that in vivo modulation of GABAergic neurons in DRG can alter the course of neuropathic pain development after peripheral nerve injury. It seems that direct application of a potent GABA(A) agonist, muscimol, to the ipsilateral DRG prevents the development of hyperalgesia in rats subjected to a sciatic nerve crush injury. In addition to potentially curtailing hyperexcitability, GABAergic stimulation upregulated expression of peripheral myelin protein 22 (PMP22), a key component of the basal lamina. PMP22 expression correlates with peripheral myelin formation and nerve regeneration. ⋯ The DRG could be a promising therapeutic target in nerve regeneration and pain alleviation after crush injury of a myelinated peripheral nerve.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Mar 2012
Comparative StudyIntrathecal catheterization influences tolerance to chronic morphine in rats.
We evaluated the antinociceptive effects of acute and chronic morphine administered spinally via lumbar puncture in intrathecally catheterized and sham-surgery rats. The effects of acute morphine did not differ between groups. ⋯ Spinal astrogliosis, determined by measurement of 3-dimensional cell volumes, was observed in catheterized rats as indicated by significantly larger cell volumes compared with surgery-naive controls. Gliosis induced by chronic intrathecal morphine administered to surgery-naive animals was comparable to that observed in saline-treated catheterized rats.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Mar 2012
Editorial Comparative StudyInternational Anesthesia Research Society Annual Meeting: then & now.