European journal of anaesthesiology
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Patients commonly take a combination of prescription drugs and herbal medicines. Often these alternative products have known pharmacological effects which may interact with drugs given perioperatively, resulting in adverse events. They can also cause physiological fluctuations which may influence the choice of anaesthetic technique used. This has been acknowledged by a number of national bodies that recommend eliciting a history of herbal medicine use preoperatively. This survey attempted to ascertain whether this guidance had been observed and turned into local policy. We also attempted to determine what advice patients were being given. ⋯ Anaesthetic departments in the United Kingdom are not currently following national advice regarding herbal medicine use. There is no coherence in the advice being offered to patients in the perioperative period, which may reflect the lack of information available. National guidelines may help clinicians understand the issues and adopt best practice.
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Using the Intubation Difficulty Scale (IDS) more than 5 as a standardized definition of difficult intubation, we propose a new score to predict difficult intubation: the Simplified Predictive Intubation Difficulty Score (SPIDS). ⋯ The SPIDS seems easy to perform, and by weighting risk factors of difficult intubation, it could help anaesthesiologists to plan a difficult airway management strategy. A value of SPIDS strictly above 10 could encourage the anaesthesiologists to plan for the beginning of the anaesthetic induction with 'alternative' airway devices ready in the operating theatre.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Retrograde autologous priming of the cardiopulmonary bypass circuit reduces blood transfusion in small adults: a prospective, randomized trial.
Extreme haemodilution occurring with cardiopulmonary bypass imposes a primary risk factor for blood transfusion in small adult cardiac surgical patients. Priming of the cardiopulmonary bypass circuit with patients' own blood [retrograde autologous priming (RAP)] is a technique used to limit haemodilution and reduce transfusion requirements. We designed this study to evaluate the effects of RAP on reducing perioperative blood transfusion in small adults. ⋯ RAP resulted in a significant decrease in intraoperative haemodilution and conserved the use of blood. This technique should be considered for patients with a small body surface area (<1.5 m) undergoing open heart surgery.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Comparison of the laryngeal mask airway Supreme and laryngeal mask airway Classic in adults.
The laryngeal mask airway (LMA) is an important airway device that was developed in 1983. From the first classic LMA models up to now, LMA models have been developed that are easily and quickly inserted, provide ventilation at higher airway pressures, have lower cuff pressure, a reduced risk of gastric aspiration and cause fewer stress responses. We aimed to compare the LMA Classic with the LMA Supreme in assessing the success rate and time for insertion, number of attempts and leak pressure. ⋯ The LMA Supreme is superior to the LMA Classic because of its ease of insertion with low cuff pressure and high oropharyngeal leakage pressure.