Current opinion in anaesthesiology
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The article reviews the rationale for using intravenous anesthesia for thoracic operations, the drugs and equipment required, and the methodology involved. ⋯ Total intravenous anesthesia is indicated for procedures in which inhalational anesthetics may not be safely or effectively delivered, including endobronchial procedures using flexible or rigid bronchoscopy and proximal airway-disrupting surgeries. Total intravenous anesthesia may be beneficial in lung volume reduction surgery, lung transplantation and thymectomy. Total intravenous anesthesia is safer and more practical for thoracic procedures performed outside of the operating room, such as offsite locations, military field or impoverished areas of the world. Propofol, dexmedetomidine, ketamine and remifentanil may be used in combination with anesthetic depth monitoring to execute an effective total intravenous anesthesia regimen. Target-controlled infusion may improve the delivery of total intravenous anesthesia and is a focus for future research. This article reviews the balanced total intravenous anesthesia technique currently used at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
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While patients with acute heart failure typically receive diuretics and vasodilators, contractile dysfunction and peripheral hypoperfusion also leads to a widespread use of inotropic agents despite the lack of evidence for efficacy or safety. Levosimendan, a calcium sensitizer and vasodilator, has been proposed to be superior to standard inotropes. In addition, further possible indications for levosimendan have been described, such as perioperative use, cardioprotection, cardiogenic shock, sepsis, and right ventricular dysfunction. ⋯ Levosimendan is an established substance in the treatment of acute heart failure in several countries despite disappointing findings concerning a possible survival benefit in two recent clinical trials. Owing to its alternative mechanisms of action as compared with traditional cardiotonic agents, several promising clinical applications have arisen. Available evidence for the use of levosimendan in settings other than decompensated heart failure is currently limited.
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The management of patients with recent coronary artery stents presenting for noncardiac surgery has become a major topic of interest and concern for all perioperative caregivers. This review will update recent reports and particularly new guidelines as well as recommendations. ⋯ Anaesthesiologists may understand the specific problem of drug-eluting stents, the recent debate among cardiologists and the implications for the perioperative scenario.
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Curr Opin Anaesthesiol · Feb 2008
ReviewGenetic and environmental determinants of postthoracotomy pain syndrome.
Pain after thoracic surgery may persist for up to a year or longer in as many as 50% of patients undergoing lung resection. There is currently no specific therapy, and our ability to predict who will develop a persistent pain syndrome is poor at best. Persistent pain after thoracotomy is not an acute somatic pain, rather it is a complex syndrome with many of the characteristics of neuropathic, dysesthetic pain. ⋯ Postthoracotomy pain syndrome likely arises as a direct result of an environmental stress (surgery) occurring on a landscape of susceptibility that is determined by an individual's behavioral, clinical and genetic characteristics.