Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Nov 2016
ReviewRecent Insights Into Molecular Mechanisms of Propofol-Induced Developmental Neurotoxicity: Implications for the Protective Strategies.
Mounting evidence has demonstrated that general anesthetics could induce developmental neurotoxicity, including acute widespread neuronal cell death, followed by long-term memory and learning abnormalities. Propofol is a commonly used intravenous anesthetic agent for the induction and maintenance of anesthesia and procedural and critical care sedation in children. Compared with other anesthetic drugs, little information is available on its potential contributions to neurotoxicity. ⋯ We then discuss the mechanism of propofol-induced developmental neurotoxicity, such as increased cell death in neurons and oligodendrocytes, dysregulation of neurogenesis, abnormal dendritic development, and decreases in neurotrophic factor expression. Recent findings of complex mechanisms of propofol action, including alterations in microRNAs and mitochondrial fission, are discussed as well. An understanding of the toxic effect of propofol and the underlying mechanisms may help to develop effective novel protective or therapeutic strategies for avoiding the neurotoxicity in the developing human brain.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Nov 2016
ReviewSCAI/CCAS/SPA Expert Consensus Statement for Anesthesia and Sedation Practice: Recommendations for Patients Undergoing Diagnostic and Therapeutic Procedures in the Pediatric and Congenital Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory.
Current practice of sedation and anesthesia for patients undergoing pediatric and congenital cardiac catheterization laboratory (PCCCL) procedures is known to vary among institutions, a multi-society expert panel with representatives from the Congenital Heart Disease Council of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia and the Congenital Cardiac Anesthesia Society was convened to evaluate the types of sedation and personnel necessary for procedures performed in the PCCCL. The goal of this panel was to provide practitioners and institutions performing these procedures with guidance consistent with national standards and to provide clinicians and institutions with consensus-based recommendations and the supporting references to encourage their application in quality improvement programs. ⋯ This expert consensus statement has adhered to these principles for optimal management of patients requiring sedation and anesthesia. What follows are recommendations for patient monitoring in the PCCCL regardless of whether minimal or no sedation is being used or general anesthesia is being provided by an anesthesiologist.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Nov 2016
ReviewDisconnecting Consciousness: Is There a Common Anesthetic End Point?
A quest for a systems-level neuroscientific basis of anesthetic-induced loss and return of consciousness has been in the forefront of research for the past 2 decades. Recent advances toward the discovery of underlying mechanisms have been achieved using experimental electrophysiology, multichannel electroencephalography, magnetoencephalography, and functional magnetic resonance imaging. By the careful dosing of various volatile and IV anesthetic agents to the level of behavioral unresponsiveness, both specific and common changes in functional and effective connectivity across large-scale brain networks have been discovered and interpreted in the context of how the synthesis of neural information might be affected during anesthesia. ⋯ The critical neural events that account for the transition between responsive and unresponsive states should be assessed at similar anesthetic doses just below and above the loss or return of responsiveness. There will also be a need to identify a robust, sensitive, and reliable measure of information transfer. Ultimately, finding a behavior-independent measure of subjective experience that can track covert cognition in unresponsive subjects and a delineation of causal factors versus correlated events will be essential to understand the neuronal basis of human consciousness and unconsciousness.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Nov 2016
Perioperative Surgical Home in Pediatric Settings: Preliminary Results.
The Perioperative Surgical Home (PSH) is a patient-centered, team-based approach that aims to improve the value of perioperative care. We implemented a PSH for patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis who were undergoing posterior spinal fusion at Children's National Health System. We hypothesized that this PSH would improve patient surgical outcomes and reduce hospital length of stay (LOS). ⋯ The PSH model presented a ready structure that proved successful at our institution for patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis who underwent posterior spinal fusion.
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Air injection is carefully avoided during IV solution administration; however, ambient air is dissolved in all liquids used for intravenous (IV) therapy. A portion of this gas will come out of solution in the form of bubbles as the solution is warmed to body temperature in a fluid warming system and/or within the body. We sought to quantify the proportion of the gas theoretically dissolved in room temperature crystalloid and 4°C blood products that comes out of solution in the IV tubing on warming to 37°C. ⋯ A significant and potentially clinically relevant amount of the resident dissolved gas in room temperature crystalloid, and 4°C packed red blood cells and plasma solutions comes out of solution on warming to body temperature. A nontrivial fraction of this outgassing is also expected to occur within the body circulation based on the results of this study. This can be substantially prevented by prewarming.