The Tokai journal of experimental and clinical medicine
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Safe guide is a central venous catheterization kit that serves as both pilot needle and introducer. With a single puncture, a guide wire can be introduced by inserting it through the side port of the 22-gauge needle. The advantage is that this needle can be placed within a blood vessel using no more force than is required to insert a pilot needle. ⋯ The use of our modified guide wire decreased the incidence of kinking and locking of the guide wire when passing it through the side port. In addition, no guide wire kinking at the puncture site occurred when introducing the dilator. Issues associated with the original J-type guide wire were resolved by 1) changing the guide wire tip to a gentler angle, and 2) fortifying the guide wire by altering its composition.
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Two major disadvantages of the conventional catheter-tip transducer have been incapability to calibrate baseline pressure and to adjust sensitivity after insertion. A vast majority of conventional catheter-tip transducers are classified as gauge type. Due to their structure they are inherently incapable of recalibrating after insertion. ⋯ This passage makes a baseline standard possible, when the end of the lumen is exposed to atmospheric pressure. When pneumatic pressure is imposed to the end of the lumen using a syringe, for example, the transducer output shifts up and down in accordance to that pressure, enabling baseline pressure recalibration and verifying the degree of sensitivity after insertion. By obtaining the following data, we confirmed the stability and availability of this transducer: Baseline drift less than 0.04 mmHg/8 hour, frequency characteristics flat up to 60 Hz, and common mode rejection ratio more than 46 dB.
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Tokai J. Exp. Clin. Med. · Jun 1999
Case ReportsThe use of sevoflurane anesthesia during early pregnancy.
Sevoflurane has favorable pharmacodynamic properties such as a rapid, smooth induction and emergence from anesthesia. However, there is only one report of sevoflurane anesthesia during early pregnancy. ⋯ General anesthesia was performed and maintained with oxygen, nitrous oxide, and sevoflurane. Six months later a healthy infant without abnormalities was delivered.
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Tokai J. Exp. Clin. Med. · Apr 1999
Nurses' perspectives concerning do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the views of the nursing staff concerning do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders at the Tokai University Hospital where a controversial incident occurred several years ago. A 'Questionnaire on DNR Orders' was circulated and the anonymous answers were collected two weeks later. The questionnaire was returned by 706 of 780 (90.5%) nurses from every ward/specialty, which revealed that 87% of the nurses felt that DNRs were occasionally necessary, with more than 40% of the nurses answering that they took part in DNR. ⋯ There is, in fact, a "tacit understanding" between physicians and patients' families in medical practice in Japan. However, DNR is definitely a medical decision. Therefore it should be clearly stated in a standardized format, although such a procedure presently seems unlikely, in view of the Japanese traditional value system.