Anaesthesia and intensive care
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Aug 1998
Case ReportsParaspinal abscess associated with epidural in labour.
A 24-year-old presented in labour requesting an epidural. She had been diagnosed as having "pelvic arthropathy" at 37 weeks. After an uneventful epidural and instrumental delivery, she discharged herself home. ⋯ She had an urgent surgical decompression. In hindsight, it is likely that the paraspinal mass was present at the time of epidural insertion. The discussion highlights that complications are sometimes not what they seem.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Aug 1998
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialLack of efficacy of propofol in the treatment of early postoperative nausea and vomiting.
The anti-nauseant efficacy of low-dose propofol was investigated in a blinded, randomized trial. Patients who complained of nausea and/or vomiting following laparoscopic gynaecological surgery and who requested antiemetic were randomly assigned to receive placebo, propofol 3 mg, propofol 9 mg or propofol 27 mg by intravenous injection. Nausea, vomiting and sedation were recorded by a blinded observer for 90 minutes following administration of the test drug, prior to discharge, and 24 hours following surgery. ⋯ Numbers of patients receiving rescue antiemetic were similar in the four treatment groups. In the first 10 minutes following test drug administration, sedation scores were increased by propofol in a dose-related manner. We conclude that, in the dose range studied, propofol is ineffective for the treatment of nausea and vomiting occurring soon after laparoscopic gynaecological surgery.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Aug 1998
Comparative StudyScreening tests for predicting difficult intubation. A clinical assessment in Turkish patients.
Three methods of predicting difficult intubation were compared prospectively. Mallampati test, Wilson risk-sum and thyromental distance were determined preoperatively and laryngeal views were graded in 500 patients. The sensitivities, specificities, positive and negative predictive values of each test were calculated. ⋯ Among the different specificities, the only significant difference was observed between the Wilson risk-sum and the thyromental distance (P < 0.05). There were no significant differences between the positive and negative predictive values of the three screening tests (P > 0.05). In conclusion, the Wilson risk-sum was the most sensitive test and the thyromental distance has the highest positive predictive value for difficult intubation.