Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Dec 2020
Multicenter StudyMusculoskeletal Trauma in Critically Injured Patients: Factors Leading to Delayed Operative Fixation and Multiple Organ Failure.
Musculoskeletal injuries are common following trauma and variables that are associated with late femur fracture fixation are important to perioperative management. Furthermore, the association of late fracture fixation and multiple organ failure (MOF) is not well defined. ⋯ In a cohort of multisystem trauma patients with femur fractures, greater injury severity and depth of shock, as measured by LacTW24h, were associated with late operative fixation. Late fixation was also associated with MOF. Strategies to reduce the burden of MOF in this population require further investigation.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Dec 2020
Observational StudyAn Observational Study of the Pharmacokinetics of Surgeon-Performed Intercostal Nerve Blockade With Liposomal Bupivacaine for Posterior-Lateral Thoracotomy Analgesia.
Intercostal nerve blocks with liposomal bupivacaine are commonly used for thoracic surgery pain management. However, dose scheduling is difficult because the pharmacokinetics of a single-dose intercostal injection of liposomal bupivacaine has never been investigated. The primary aim of this study was to assess the median time to peak plasma concentration (Tmax) following a surgeon-administered, single-dose infiltration of 266 mg of liposomal bupivacaine as a posterior multilevel intercostal nerve block in patients undergoing posterolateral thoracotomy. ⋯ This study of the pharmacokinetics of liposomal bupivacaine following multilevel intercostal nerve blockade demonstrates significant variability and delay in systemic absorption of the drug. Peak serum concentration occurred at 48 hours or sooner in all patients. The serum bupivacaine concentration always remained well below the described toxicity threshold (2 μg/mL) during the 96-hour study period.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Dec 2020
Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of a Telemedicine Preoperative Evaluation Initiative at a Major Academic Medical Center.
With health care practice consolidation, the increasing geographic scope of health care systems, and the advancement of mobile telecommunications, there is increasing interest in telemedicine-based health care consultations. Anesthesiology has had experience with telemedicine consultation for preoperative evaluation since 2004, but the majority of studies have been conducted in rural settings. There is a paucity of literature of use in metropolitan areas. In this article, we describe the implementation of a telemedicine-based anesthesia preoperative evaluation and report the program's patient satisfaction, clinical case cancellation rate outcomes, and cost savings in a large metropolitan area (Los Angeles, CA). ⋯ This study demonstrates the implementation of a telemedicine-based preoperative anesthesia evaluation from an academic medical center in a metropolitan area with high patient satisfaction, cost savings, and without increase in day-of-procedure case cancellations.