European journal of anaesthesiology
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Observational Study
Urinary neprilysin for early detection of acute kidney injury after cardiac surgery: A prospective observational study.
Acute kidney injury (AKI) predicts adverse outcomes after cardiac surgery. The accuracy of using changes in serum creatinine for diagnosis and grading of AKI is limited in the peri-operative cardiac surgical setting and AKI may be underdiagnosed due to haemodilution from cardiopulmonary bypass priming and the need for intra-operative and postoperative volume resuscitation. ⋯ Urinary neprilysin has potential as a biomarker for the early detection of AKI after cardiac surgery and has comparable discriminatory power to recently studied AKI biomarkers.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Ultrasound-guided supraclavicular vs. retroclavicular block of the brachial plexus: comparison of ipsilateral diaphragmatic function: A randomised clinical trial.
The ultrasound-guided retroclavicular block (RCB) is a recently described alternative approach to brachial plexus blockade at the level of the cords. Although more distal blockade of the brachial plexus is thought to be associated with a lower incidence of phrenic nerve block, the impact of RCB on ipsilateral diaphragmatic function has not been formally investigated. ⋯ The current study confirms the hypothesis that a RCB is significantly less likely to affect ipsilateral diaphragmatic function than a SCB.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The effect of oral Δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol on the minimal alveolar concentration of sevoflurane: A randomised, controlled, observer-blinded experimental study.
Cannabis has increasingly been used for medical and recreational purposes. The main pharmacological compound in cannabis is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which has sedative, anxiolytic and analgesic effects. In some animal models, THC has also been shown to reduce the minimum alveolar concentration (MAC) of halothane and cyclopropane, but its effect on sevoflurane, currently the most commonly used inhalational anaesthetic agent, has not been investigated. ⋯ Gastric administration of THC 10 mg kg significantly reduced the MAC of sevoflurane by 26%.