Anaesthesia and intensive care
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Feb 1986
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialReduction of heat loss during transurethral resection of the prostate.
A prospective trial was performed on 100 patients to determine whether using a reflective blanket (Space Blanket) and heated glycine 1.5% bladder irrigation solution would decrease the fall in body temperature associated with transurethral resection of the prostate under spinal anaesthesia. Patients who received a combination of reflective blanket and heated glycine 1.5% solution had their fall in body temperature significantly reduced when compared with those patients managed without a reflective blanket and/or heated 1.5% glycine. There was a marked decrease in the number of patients shivering and no increase in blood loss was seen when heated bladder irrigation solution was used.
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The Combibag self-inflating resuscitator incorporates an adult and a paediatric segment as well as a two-stage pressure-limiting safety valve. The resuscitator is not without problems. ⋯ Problems can also occur with the valve either sticking or being blown forward off its seating, thereby making the resuscitator inoperable and dangerous. The use of a two-stage pressure-limiting safety valve should prevent unnecessary barotrauma but could well lead to unrecognised venting with inadequate ventilation when used by inexperienced personnel.
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This paper was commissioned to cover the beginnings of anaesthesia: the transition from surgical operations with pain to those without. It reviews some previous pre-anaesthetic histories (Part I): it focuses upon attitudes to pain; and it seeks evidence from the one hundred years before the discovery of anaesthesia. Finally (Part II) it outlines the introduction of nitrous oxide and of ether anaesthesia.