European journal of anaesthesiology
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Patients who awake from sevoflurane anaesthesia with symptoms of agitation may have some underlying functional substrate that is sensitive to the low concentrations of anaesthetic encountered during emergence. One candidate for such a substrate could be neurocircuitry implied in the pathophysiology of both agitation and movement disorders with hyperactivity. We postulated that hyperactive animals would show a further increase in activity in the presence of low concentrations of volatile anaesthetics, such as sevoflurane. ⋯ The presence of an inherent anomaly in mutant mice that becomes more manifest during exposure to 0.1 MAC sevoflurane and is still present after the emergence from sevoflurane anaesthesia suggests the presence of and necessitates a search for some putative substrate that may, by analogy, underlie emergence agitation in the clinical setting.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Addition of remifentanil to patient-controlled tramadol for postoperative analgesia: a double-blind, controlled, randomized trial after major abdominal surgery.
We have investigated whether, after major abdominal surgery, the addition of remifentanil to tramadol for intravenous patient-controlled analgesia improved analgesia and lowered pain scores, compared to a patient-controlled analgesia containing only tramadol. ⋯ After major abdominal surgery, adding remifentanil (0.2 microg kg(-1)) to tramadol (0.2 mg kg(-1)), with 10-min lockout times, for patient-controlled analgesia offered better postoperative pain relief and patient comfort, without causing any sedation or respiratory depression.