Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Feb 2025
Interhemispheric and Corticothalamic White-Matter Dysfunction Underlies Affective Morbidity and Impaired Pain Modulation in Chronic Pain.
Although patients with chronic pain show behavioral signs of impaired endogenous pain modulation, responsible cerebral networks have yet to be anatomically delineated. We used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to examine the white-matter alterations in patients with chronic pain compared with healthy subjects. We further measured thermal pain modulatory responses using the offset analgesia (OA) paradigm. We tested whether the white-matter indices be associated with psychophysical parameters reflecting morbidity and modulatory responses of pain in patients, and whether they could serve as diagnostic biomarkers of chronic pain. ⋯ Patients with chronic pain showed dysfunction of the white matter concerned with interhemispheric communication of sensorimotor information as well as descending corticothalamic modulation of pain in association with affective morbidity and altered temporal dynamics of pain perception. We suggest that an impaired interhemispheric modulation of pain, through the corpus callosum, might be a novel cerebral mechanism in chronification of pain.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Feb 2025
Observational StudyClinical Decision-Making and Process Complications During Anticipated Difficult Airway Management for Elective Surgery.
Difficult airway management (DAM) is a challenging aspect of anesthetic care. Although nearly all DAM episodes result in successful intubation, complications are common and clinical decision-making may be complex. In adults with anticipated DAM scheduled for nonemergent surgery, we prospectively observed clinical decisions made during DAM such as awake/sedated versus anesthetized, choice of initial and subsequent devices, case cancellation/postponement, conversions between awake and anesthetized approaches, and process complications such as multiple intubation/supraglottic airway (SGA) insertion attempts, difficult bag-mask ventilation (BMV), hypoxemia, and cardiovascular destabilization. ⋯ Airway management was successful in all patients and the incidence of process complications was higher than in routine airway management. Despite a high risk of DAM, 87% of patients were intubated anesthetized and conversions between awake and anesthetized approaches were rare. That patients intubated awake had more difficult airway indicators implies that clinicians reserve awake intubation for particularly difficult airways. The high incidence of multiple attempts, hypoxemia, and cardiovascular destabilization in patients intubated awake suggests that awake airway management remains challenging. We found no clear pattern in device choices after a first failed attempt. Patients with a first failed anesthetized intubation attempt and difficult BMV were at particularly high risk for hypoxemia.