Anaesthesia and intensive care
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Jul 2013
ReviewAcute respiratory distress syndrome: current concepts and future directions.
Acute respiratory distress syndrome is one of the leading causes of death in critically ill patients. Recent advances in supportive care have led to a moderate improvement in mortality. ⋯ Though improvements in supportive care may have provided some benefit, there remains an absence of effective biological agents that are necessary to achieve further incremental reduction in mortality. This article will review the evidence available for current treatment strategies and discuss future research directions that may eventually improve outcomes in this important global disease.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Jul 2013
ReviewOverview of the introduction of neuromuscular monitoring to clinical anaesthesia.
Muscle relaxants were introduced into clinical practice in the early 1940s. From 1949, assessments were being made of the efficacy of various agents in awake volunteers, usually the researchers themselves. From the early to mid 1950s, while interest in using muscle relaxants was keen, concern emerged in the surgical literature that there was a higher mortality rate seen in patients receiving muscle relaxants. ⋯ These were measured responses to single twitch stimulus or tetanic stimulation. In 1970, train-of-four ratio was introduced, then in 1981 post-tetanic count, and in 1989 double burst stimulation. This article reviews the introduction of these techniques.
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We investigated the incidence of and risk factors for persistent pain after caesarean delivery. Over a 12-month period, women having caesarean delivery were recruited prospectively at an Australian tertiary referral centre. Demographic, anaesthetic and surgical data were collected and at 24 hour follow-up, women were assessed for immediate postoperative pain and preoperative expectations of pain. ⋯ Persistent pain, usually of a mild nature, is reported by some women two months after their caesarean delivery, but by 12 months less than 1% of women had pain requiring analgesia or affecting mood or sleep. All declined a pain clinic review. Clinicians and patients can be reassured that caesarean delivery is unlikely to lead to severe persistent pain in the long-term.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Jul 2013
Prediction of fluid responsiveness using dynamic preload indices in patients undergoing robot-assisted surgery with pneumoperitoneum in the Trendelenburg position.
We investigated the abilities of pulse pressure variation (PPV) and stroke volume variation (SVV) to predict fluid responsiveness during robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy, requiring pneumoperitoneum and the Trendelenburg position. In 42 patients without cardiopulmonary disease, PPV and SVV were measured before and after administration of 500 ml colloid under pneumoperitoneum combined with the steep Trendelenburg position (35°). Fluid responsiveness was defined as a ≥15% increase in stroke volume after the fluid loading measured using transoesophageal echocardiography. ⋯ A PPV of ≥9.5% identified responders with a sensitivity of 77.3% and a specificity of 90.0%, and a SVV of ≥9.5% also identified responders with a sensitivity of 77.3% and a specificity of 75.0%. The area under receiver operating characteristic curves for PPV and SVV were 0.87 (P <0.001) and 0.81 (P=0.001), respectively. The findings suggest that both PPV and SVV could be useful predictors of fluid responsiveness in patients without cardiopulmonary disease undergoing robotic laparoscopic surgery with pneumoperitoneum in the Trendelenberg position.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Jul 2013
Bedside pleuroscopy in the management of undiagnosed exudative pleural effusion with acute respiratory failure.
Pleuroscopy is indicated in patients with acute respiratory failure due to an unresolved exudative pleural effusion but it may not be possible to move such patients to the operating theatre or endoscopy room for pleuroscopy due to their critical condition. We report our experience of using flexible bronchoscopy for pleuroscopy to diagnose pleural effusion in patients with acute respiratory failure at the bedside in the intensive care unit. Before pleuroscopy, patients were placed in the lateral decubitus position. ⋯ A 16 Fr pigtail catheter was inserted for drainage after the pleuroscopy. Chest radiographs were routinely obtained after the procedure. In summary, this modified pleuroscopy technique can be performed at the bedside in an intensive care unit.