Anaesthesia and intensive care
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Lung protective ventilation limiting tidal volumes and airway pressures were proven to reduce mortality in patients with acute severe respiratory failure. Hypercapnia and hypercapnic acidosis is often noted with lung protective ventilation. ⋯ To the contrary, some clinicians do not tolerate hypercapnic acidosis and use various techniques including extracorporeal carbon dioxide elimination to treat hypercapnia and acidosis. This review aims at defining the effects of hypercapnia and hypercapnic acidosis with a focus on the pros and cons of clearing carbon dioxide and the modalities that may enhance carbon dioxide clearance.
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There is widespread variation as to the method of presentation of informed anaesthetic consent with little empirical data on the nature of communication and how much information is retained. At a dedicated anaesthesia pre-admission clinic, 149 patients undergoing elective surgery under general anaesthesia were both verbally informed and shown written information about four major and three minor anaesthesia risks. The major risks were death, pneumonia, heart attack and stroke. ⋯ On the day of scheduled surgery, retention of information about these anaesthetic risks was examined. Thirty-eight patients (26%) could not recall any anaesthesia risks, 55 patients (37%) could not recall any major risks and 126 patients (84%) could not recall any minor risks. Our findings indicate that patients should receive a second explanation on the day of surgery, even if informed consent was provided only two weeks earlier.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Mar 2013
ReviewInterventional neuroradiological procedures-a review for anaesthetists.
Interventional neuroradiology is a rapidly expanding field, and the complexity and duration of these procedures makes anaesthetic support essential to their success. Such has been the development in this area, that the American Heart Association has published a scientific statement on the indications for these procedures. ⋯ This article will cover the management of intracranial aneurysms, cerebral vasospasm following intracranial haemorrhage, intracranial and spinal arteriovenous malformations, idiopathic intracranial hypertension, carotid artery stenting, intra-arterial thrombolysis for stroke and endovascular treatment of intracranial atherosclerosis. Protection from ionising radiation and acute kidney injury are also discussed.
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Benefits and advantages of tracheostomy have been vigorously debated. There is a lack of consensus as to whether perceived clinical improvement is attributable to fundamental changes in respiratory dynamics. We compare the effect of tracheostomy versus endotracheal tube on dead space, airway resistance and other lung parameters in critically ill ventilated patients. ⋯ The average dead space of endotracheal versus tracheostomy tubes was 41±12.6% and 40±14.6%, respectively (P=0.75). The remaining 22 patients (92%) had no significant change in dead space, compliance or other respiratory parameters. This study shows that there is no significant difference in respiratory mechanics and dead space with a tracheostomy versus endotracheal tube.