Anaesthesia and intensive care
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Preventive analgesia is defined as the persistence of the analgesic effects of a drug beyond the clinical activity of the drug. The N-methyl D-aspartate receptor plays a critical role in the sensitisation of pain pathways induced by injury. Nitrous oxide inhibits excitatory N-methyl D-aspartate sensitive glutamate receptors. ⋯ However, patients who received nitrous oxide had a shorter duration of patient-controlled analgesia use (nitrous group 35 hours, no nitrous group 51 hours, mean difference -16 hours, 95% confidence interval -29 to -2 hours, P = 0.022). There was no difference in pain scores between the groups. The shorter patient-controlled analgesia duration in the nitrous oxide group suggests that intraoperative nitrous oxide may have a preventive analgesic effect.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Sep 2010
Randomized Controlled TrialThe effect of remote ischaemic preconditioning on myocardial injury in patients undergoing off-pump coronary artery bypass graft surgery.
In several recent clinical trials on cardiac surgery patients, remote ischaemic preconditioning (RIPC) showed a powerful myocardial protective effect. However the effect of RIPC has not been studied in patients undergoing off-pump coronary artery bypass graft surgery. We evaluated whether RIPC could induce myocardial protection in off-pump coronary artery bypass graft surgery patients. ⋯ Although RIPC reduced the total amount of troponin I (area under the curve of troponin increase) by 26%, it did not reach statistical significance (RIPC group 53.2 +/- 72.9 hours x ng/ml vs control group 67.4 +/- 97.7 hours x ng/ml, P = 0.281). In this study, RIPC by upper limb ischaemia reduced the postoperative myocardial enzyme elevation in off-pump coronary artery bypass graft surgery patients, but this did not reach statistical significance. Further study with a larger number of patients may be needed to fully evaluate the clinical effect of RIPC in off-pump coronary artery bypass graft surgery patients.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Sep 2010
What are we telling our patients? A survey of risk disclosure for anaesthesia in Australia and New Zealand.
The aim of our study was to determine the range of risks disclosed in four commonly-encountered clinical scenarios: knee arthroscopy, lumbar laminectomy, laparoscopic appendicectomy and laparotomy, and then to determine how often five commonly-disclosed risks were disclosed for each scenario. We conducted a pilot survey of consultant anaesthetists in the Auckland City Hospital, the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Austin Hospital (response rate 59%). A web survey was then sent to 500 randomly-selected Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists Fellows (response rate 29%). ⋯ While the low response rate limits the validity and generalisability of many of our findings, we can nevertheless confidently conclude that risk disclosure varies widely in Australia and New Zealand. This large variation should be of concern to all anaesthetists. More work is needed to understand the reasons for this variation, and to develop a stronger consensus among anaesthetists about what risks should be disclosed.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Sep 2010
Case ReportsAcute subdural haematoma in the presence of an intrathecal catheter placed for the prevention of post-dural puncture headache.
A 31-year-old term primigravid woman had an intrathecal catheter placed following a dural puncture during attempted epidural analgesia during labour. After 23 hours she developed sudden loss of consciousness and an urgent brain computed tomography scan demonstrated a large left hyper-acute subdural haematoma. ⋯ Although subdural haematoma is a recognised complication of dural puncture, it has not been reported in the presence of an intrathecal catheter. An intrathecal catheter may not always prevent cerebrospinal fluid efflux, so subdural haematoma remains a potential complication of inadvertent dural puncture.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Sep 2010
Comparative StudyPharmacoeconomics of volatile inhalational anaesthetic agents: an 11-year retrospective analysis.
With continuously increasing expenditure on health care resources, various cost containment strategies have been suggested in regard to controlling the cost of inhalational anaesthetic agents. We performed a cost identification analysis assessing inhalational anaesthetic agent expenditure at a tertiary level hospital, along with an evaluation of strategies to contain the cost of these agents. The number of bottles of isoflurane, sevoflurane and desflurane used during the financial years 1997 to 2007 was retrospectively determined and the acquisition costs and cumulative drug expenditure calculated. ⋯ Pharmacoeconomic modelling demonstrated that sevoflurane at 2 l/minute costs 19 times more than isoflurane at 0.5 l/minute. For the financial years 1997 to 2007, we found a progressive shift from the cheaper isoflurane to the more expensive agents, sevoflurane and desflurane, a shift associated with marked increases in costs. Low flow anaesthesia with isoflurane is one strategy to reduce costs.