Anaesthesia and intensive care
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Aug 1988
A method of detecting oesophageal intubation or confirming tracheal intubation.
A method of testing the location of an endotracheal tube, in the trachea or oesophagus, was subjected to trial. The test involves drawing back on the plunger of a 50 ml syringe connected with airtight fittings to the endotracheal tube connector, with the endotracheal tube cuff deflated. ⋯ The method was 100% accurate in fifty intubations, 25 tracheal and 25 oesophageal. The technique has been in routine use by one author for several years without giving an incorrect answer and enthusiastic use by other authors is producing the same result.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Aug 1988
Effect of continuously warmed irrigating solution during transurethral resection.
The effects of a continuously warmed irrigating solution on body temperature during transurethral resection of the prostate and of bladder tumours were studied in forty patients. Anaesthesia was spinal and deep body temperatures of the forehead and lower abdomen were measured, using a deep body thermometry system. ⋯ The same results were obtained for the patients who underwent transurethral resection of bladder tumour. Our results indicate that a continuously warmed irrigating solution could prevent the fall in body temperature during transurethral resection, especially prostate resection, under spinal anaesthesia.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Aug 1988
Criteria for estimating likelihood of difficulty of endotracheal intubation with the Macintosh laryngoscope.
Many anatomical factors in difficult intubation at direct laryngoscopy have been evaluated. Lateral radiographs were taken of nineteen patients in whom tracheal intubation proved particularly difficult, and fourteen patients whose intubation was reasonably straightforward. ⋯ A formula and graph have been derived to relate these variables with likelihood of difficulty, and a method has been described of applying this information at the bedside, without using X-ray examination, to estimate the likelihood of difficulty in intubating a new patient. Eighteen months' experience of the application of this clinical evaluation have so far found it reliable.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · May 1988
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialThe prevention of gastric inflation--a neglected benefit of cricoid pressure.
The ability of cricoid pressure to prevent inflation of the stomach during mask ventilation of a patient was studied. Fifty patients were randomly allocated to either have or not have cricoid pressure applied during a three-minute period of standardised mask ventilation. ⋯ However, in a subgroup of patients considered difficult to ventilate, cricoid pressure seemed less successful in preventing gastric inflation. Cricoid pressure is a useful technique for reducing gastric inflation during mask ventilation, particularly in patients who are relatively easy to ventilate.