Anaesthesia and intensive care
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Dec 1994
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialP6 acupressure and nausea and vomiting after gynaecological surgery.
We studied the effect of P6 acupressure on 46 women undergoing laparotomy for major gynaecological surgery who received patient-controlled analgesia. Half the patients received acupressure at the P6 site, the remainder received acupressure at a "sham" site. There was a reduction in the requests for anti-emetic therapy in the group receiving P6 acupressure but there was no difference in the incidence of nausea and vomiting. There was no difference in total morphine consumption between the two groups.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Dec 1994
Training, skills and approach to potentially difficult anaesthesia in general practitioner anaesthetists.
Seventy-six of the 92 practising South Australian rural general practitioner anaesthetists responded to a questionnaire on anaesthetic training, skills and approach to potentially difficult anaesthesia. The mean training period in anaesthesia was 7.5 months, 24% at registrar level. Eight per cent had no training, and 40% had 3 months or less. ⋯ Patients classified as ASA grade 3 to 5, disease states such as unstable angina, severe asthma, and risk factors such as skeletal myopathy, were avoided by most general practitioners. The failed intubation rate was 50/10,000. The conclusion is that South Australian general practitioner anaesthetists exhibit a generally safe approach to selection of patients for anaesthesia, although in some instances the approach to potentially difficult anaesthesia should be more conservative.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Dec 1994
Tunnelled epidural catheters for routine use: description of a technique.
A simple technique for routine tunnelling of epidural catheters is described. It represents a simplified version of subcutaneous tunnelling as commonly performed in chronic pain patients. In 200 obstetric and gynaecological patients to date, only two catheters have become dislodged prematurely.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Dec 1994
Blood loss and transfusion requirements in liver transplantation: experience with the first 75 cases.
The blood loss data and transfusion requirements including blood bank, salvaged washed red cells, fresh frozen plasma and cryoprecipitate were analysed for the first 75 cases of liver transplantation performed at the Austin Hospital between June 1988 and October 1992. The mean blood loss was 8.8 litres (standard deviation 14.1) with a median value of 4.0 litres. Blood product use expressed as mean number of units (SD) was bank red blood cells 7.1 (12.7), washed red blood cells 3.9 (5.9), fresh frozen plasma 7.1 (9.1), platelets 5.1 (7.4), and cryoprecipitate 1.7 (5.1). ⋯ Management should include surgical techniques to minimize bleeding and use of autologous transfusion. Use of component therapy (FFP, platelets and cryoprecipitate) should not be empirical. It should be selective on the basis of clinical bleeding assessment and guided by results of the laboratory coagulation profile and changes in thrombelastographic (TEG) parameters.