European journal of anaesthesiology
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Electrical stimulation of the heart 7 acupuncture site for preventing emergence agitation in children: A randomised controlled trial.
Emergence agitation is common in children recovering from general anaesthesia. The prevention of emergence agitation remains an important challenge in the field of paediatric anaesthesia. ⋯ Bilateral electrical stimulation of HT7 using two PNS devices significantly decreases the incidence of emergence agitation.
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An understanding of the half-life (T1/2) of infused fluids can help prevent iatrogenic problems such as volume overload and postoperative interstitial oedema. Simulations show that a prolongation of the T1/2 for crystalloid fluid increases the plasma volume and promotes accumulation of fluid in the interstitial fluid space. The T1/2 for crystalloids is usually 20 to 40 min in conscious humans but might extend to 80 min or longer in the presence of preoperative stress, dehydration, blood loss of <1 l or pregnancy. ⋯ The commonly used colloid fluids have an intravascular persistence T1/2 of 2 to 3 h, which is shortened by inflammation. The fact that the elimination T1/2 of the infused macromolecules is 2 to 6 times longer shows that they also reside outside the bloodstream. With a colloid, fluid volume is eliminated in line with its intravascular persistence, but there is insufficient data to know if this is the same in the clinical setting.