European journal of anaesthesiology
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Difficult intubation in obstetric units has been identified as a major contributory factor to anaesthesia related maternal morbidity and mortality. Availability of equipment for management of a difficult airway is associated with reduced maternal complications. The purpose of our survey was to describe the availability of difficult airway equipment in Irish Obstetric Units. ⋯ Irish Obstetric Units are well equipped according to the international guidelines for difficult intubation equipment. However, we believe that this situation could be further improved by training inexperienced anaesthetists in the use of the Intubating Laryngeal Mask and by the increased use of portable trolleys.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Combined epidural/spinal anaesthesia: needle-through-needle or separate spaces?
This prospective, randomized and blinded study compared the performance of a new needle-through-needle (NTN) kit (Epistar; Medimex, Germany) with the double-space technique for providing combined spinal epidural anaesthesia during Caesarean section. ⋯ The double-space technique had a greater success rate than the NTN technique.
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Continuous spinal analgesia (CSA) offers considerable pain relief, and has been used in various procedures such as for surgery and cancer pain control. In Japan, portable and disposable infusion kits are increasingly employed for continuous epidural analgesia and CSA. In CSA, the use of a microcatheter is expected to reduce the incidence of spinal headache previously encountered with larger catheters. However, the flow rate of disposable infusion kits is reduced when used in conjunction with a microcatheter. ⋯ These results indicated that the use of a shorter microcatheter achieves a better flow rate during CSA.
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In this preliminary study we wanted to explore the attitudes of anaesthesiologists to a point-of-care information system in the operating room. The study was conducted as a preliminary step in the process of developing such a system by the European Society of Anaesthesiologists (ESA). ⋯ This preliminary survey demonstrates that lack of knowledge of anaesthesiologists may be a significant source of medical errors in the operating room, and suggests that a point-of-care information system for the anaesthesiologist may be of value.