Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Oct 2017
Comparative StudyComparison of Registered and Reported Outcomes in Randomized Clinical Trials Published in Anesthesiology Journals.
Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) provide high-quality evidence for clinical decision-making. Trial registration is one of the many tools used to improve the reporting of RCTs by reducing publication bias and selective outcome reporting bias. The purpose of our study is to examine whether RCTs published in the top 6 general anesthesiology journals were adequately registered and whether the reported primary and secondary outcomes corresponded to the originally registered outcomes. ⋯ Despite trial registration being an accepted best practice, RCTs published in anesthesiology journals have a high rate of inadequate registration. While mandating trial registration has increased the proportion of adequately registered trials over time, there is still an unacceptably high proportion of inadequately registered RCTs. Among adequately registered trials, there are high rates of discrepancies between registered and reported outcomes, suggesting a need to compare a published RCT with its trial registry entry to be able to fully assess the quality of the study. If clinicians base their decisions on evidence distorted by primary outcome switching, patient care could be negatively affected.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Oct 2017
Application of the Novel Ventilation Mode FLow-Controlled EXpiration (FLEX): A Crossover Proof-of-Principle Study in Lung-Healthy Patients.
Traditionally, mechanical ventilation is achieved via active lung inflation during inspiration and passive lung emptying during expiration. By contrast, the novel FLEX (FLow-controlled EXpiration) ventilator mode actively decreases the rate of lung emptying. We investigated whether FLEX can be used during intraoperative mechanical ventilation of lung-healthy patients. ⋯ FLEX can be used in lung-healthy patients who are mechanically ventilated during general anesthesia. FLEX improves the homogeneous distribution of ventilation in the lungs.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Oct 2017
Small-Volume Injections: Evaluation of Volume Administration Deviation From Intended Injection Volumes.
In the perioperative period, anesthesiologists and postanesthesia care unit (PACU) nurses routinely prepare and administer small-volume IV injections, yet the accuracy of delivered medication volumes in this setting has not been described. In this ex vivo study, we sought to characterize the degree to which small-volume injections (≤0.5 mL) deviated from the intended injection volumes among a group of pediatric anesthesiologists and pediatric postanesthesia care unit (PACU) nurses. We hypothesized that as the intended injection volumes decreased, the deviation from those intended injection volumes would increase. ⋯ Clinically significant dose variation occurs when injecting volumes ≤0.5 mL. Administering small volumes of medications may result in unintended medication administration errors.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Oct 2017
Maternal Salvage With Extracorporeal Life Support: Lessons Learned in a Single Center.
The American Heart Association scientific statement on cardiac arrest in pregnancy did not endorse extracorporeal life support for lack of cohort data. We studied all pregnancy and peripartum cases of extracorporeal life support in 1 medical center (n = 11), including collapse due to infection (n = 6, 55%), thromboembolism (n = 3, 27%), and cardiac disease (n = 2, 18%). ⋯ Deaths were attributable to oxygenator blockage (n = 1) and late sepsis (n = 3). The 2 unique clinical challenges were maintenance of high peripartum cardiac outputs and balancing anticoagulation with hemostasis.