European journal of anaesthesiology
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Scheduled prophylactic ondansetron administration did not improve its antiemetic efficacy after intracranial tumour resection surgery in children.
Postoperative nausea and vomiting after craniotomy may increase intracranial pressure and morbidity in children. This prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled and double-blinded study was designed to evaluate the antiemetic efficacy of prophylactic ondansetron after intracranial tumour resections in children. ⋯ Ondansetron, in this study of 90 children, was not very effective in preventing nausea and vomiting after neurosurgical operations.
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial
The effects of surgical levels of sevoflurane and propofol anaesthesia on heart rate variability.
We compared heart rate dynamics during surgical levels of propofol and sevoflurane anaesthesia in a highly standardized setting. ⋯ Hypnotic levels of sevoflurane and propofol anaesthesia suppressed the heart rate variability measured using conventional analysis methods. Deeper surgical levels of anaesthesia also reduce the complexity of heart rate variability.
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Practice Guideline
Guidelines for sedation and/or analgesia by non-anaesthesiology doctors.
The still ever increasing demand for sedation and/or analgesia for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures puts high pressure on anaesthesia care providers all over Europe. Since the capacity to provide that service by anaesthetists is limited in most European countries, guidelines for non-anaesthetist doctors who want to sedate patients on a high-quality level and especially in a safe way are mandatory. This paper, produced by a working party of the European Board of Anaesthesiology of the European Union of Medical Specialists (EUMS/UEMS), gives direction to those practitioners who feel responsibilities in this area of medicine. Close cooperation with anaesthesiologists seems mandatory to achieve and sustain a high-quality standard for our patients undergoing medical or surgical procedures under sedation.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Auditory-evoked potentials in bispectral index-guided anaesthesia for cardiac surgery.
Midlatency auditory-evoked potentials, as measures of the anaesthetic state, were evaluated at similar levels of bispectral index in cardiac surgical patients maintained with either propofol or isoflurane anaesthesia. ⋯ After intubation and surgical stimulation, when bispectral index was at a constant level, there was a difference in the Nb and Pa components of the midlatency auditory-evoked potentials between the two anaesthetic regimens, indicating a distinction in the state of anaesthesia. Our results suggest that the parallel use of these two electrophysiological methods can show differences in the components of anaesthesia between various anaesthesia methods in cardiac surgical patients.
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The Section and Board of Anaesthesiology of the European Union of Medical Specialists aims (EUMS/UEMS) at harmonization of training of anaesthesiologists and at improvement of patient care throughout Europe. Pain medicine is considered to be an area of expertise in anaesthesiology although exclusivity is not claimed. ⋯ These proposals were prepared by the Working Party on Pain Medicine of the Section and Board. It considers a multidisciplinary approach to pain to contribute to quality in care and has taken the initiative to set up a Multidisciplinary Joint Committee on Pain Medicine within the EUMS/UEMS, for which these guidelines define the area of expertise of anaesthesiology.