Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Aug 2015
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Comparative StudyRationale and Design of the Balanced Anesthesia Study: A Prospective Randomized Clinical Trial of Two Levels of Anesthetic Depth on Patient Outcome After Major Surgery.
An association between relatively deep anesthesia, as guided by the bispectral index (BIS), and increased postoperative mortality has been demonstrated in 6 of 8 published observational studies, but association does not necessarily mean causality. Small clinical trials of anesthetic depth have demonstrated increased delirium and postoperative cognitive dysfunction in patients who were relatively deeply anesthetized, but have been inadequately powered to study mortality. A large-scale randomized study is required to determine whether causality exists. ⋯ This randomized controlled trial should definitively answer the question of whether titrating anesthetic depth makes a difference to patient outcome in a vulnerable patient group.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Aug 2015
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyTransversus Abdominis Plane Block Versus Caudal Epidural for Lower Abdominal Surgery in Children: A Double-Blinded Randomized Controlled Trial.
TAP block provides superior analgesia to caudal block, though is less effective at preventing bladder spasms after paediatric lower abdominal surgery.
pearl -
Anesthesia and analgesia · Aug 2015
Mechanistic Modeling of the Effects of Acidosis on Thrombin Generation.
Acidosis, a frequent complication of trauma and complex surgery, results from tissue hypoperfusion and IV resuscitation with acidic fluids. While acidosis is known to inhibit the function of distinct enzymatic reactions, its cumulative effect on the blood coagulation system is not fully understood. Here, we use computational modeling to test the hypothesis that acidosis delays and reduces the amount of thrombin generation in human blood plasma. Moreover, we investigate the sensitivity of different thrombin generation parameters to acidosis, both at the individual and population level. ⋯ Acidosis affected all quantitative parameters of thrombin and TAT generation. While maximum slope of the thrombin curve showed the highest sensitivity to acidosis at the individual-subject level, it may be outperformed by CT, thrombin peak time, and prothrombin time as an indicator of acidosis at the subject-group level.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Aug 2015
Predictors of Delayed Postoperative Respiratory Depression Assessed from Naloxone Administration.
The aim of this study was to identify patient and procedural characteristics associated with postoperative respiratory depression or sedation requiring naloxone intervention. ⋯ Obstructive sleep apnea and adverse respiratory events in the recovery room are harbingers of increased risk for respiratory depression or sedation requiring naloxone after discharge from anesthesia care. Also, patients administered naloxone received more opioids and other sedating medications after discharge from anesthetic care. Our findings suggest that these patients may benefit from more careful monitoring after being discharged from anesthesia care.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Aug 2015
Quality of Supervision as an Independent Contributor to an Anesthesiologist's Individual Clinical Value.
Although the clinical (operating room) production of individual anesthesiologists has been measured in multiple related ways (e.g., hours of direct clinical care), the same is not true for the quality of that effort. In our study, we consider the quality of clinical supervision provided by anesthesiologists who are supervising anesthesia residents and nurse anesthetists. The quality of the daily supervision can be measured reliably and validly using the scale developed by de Oliveira Filho et al. If clinical production and supervisory quality were not positively correlated, then it would be important for departments to measure the quality of clinical supervision because, essentially, the clinical value provided by an anesthesiologist would be correlated with, but not necessarily proportional to, their clinical hours. ⋯ When anesthesiologists supervise anesthesia residents and nurse anesthetists, the amount of clinical work performed and the quality of the supervision provided do not necessarily follow one another. Thus, faculty supervision scores serve as an independent measure of the contribution of an individual anesthesiologist to the care of the patient. Furthermore, when supervision quality is monitored and feedback is provided to anesthesiologists, quality can increase. The results suggest that anesthesiology department managers should not only be monitoring (and perhaps reporting) the quality of their departments' level of supervision, but also establishing processes so that individual anesthesiologists can learn about the quality of supervision they provide.