Current opinion in anaesthesiology
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Recent advances were made in the field of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS). Thoracic and lung ultrasound have become a rapid and accurate method of diagnosis of hypoxic diseases. The purpose of this article is to review the recent literature on POCUS, emphasizing on its use in the operating room. ⋯ POC thoracic and lung ultrasound is used in many critical medicine fields. The aim of this review is to describe the basic lung ultrasound technique and the knowledge required in order to diagnose and treat the hypoxic patient. Emphasis is on disorder such as pleural effusion, alveolar interstitial disease, as well as pneumothorax, which is of particular importance in the field of anesthesiology.
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To discuss the innovations in general thoracic surgery and how they affect anesthetic management perioperatively. However, rather than listing various thoracic procedures and their inherent issues that complicate providing anesthesia, the approach of this article is to raise the anesthetic issues associated with innovations in thoracic surgery perceived to be important by the thoracic surgeon. ⋯ Innovations in thoracic surgery continually emerge and challenge thoracic surgeons and anesthesiologists to evaluate their utility and benefits. The increased adoption of minimally invasive operations is a testament to this collaboration. This process requires an ongoing dialog between the clinicians within these two disciplines to advance the science of surgery.
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Pneumonectomy is still associated with a 5% 30-day mortality in a large series involving a variety of anaesthetic agents and techniques. ⋯ No one anaesthetic agent has emerged as best. There is a trade-off between initial success and long-term problems or vice versa.
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This review will analyze the risk factors of acute lung injury (ALI) in patients undergoing thoracic surgery. Evidence for the occurrence of lung injury following mechanical ventilation and one-lung ventilation (OLV) and the strategies to avoid it will also be discussed. ⋯ The goal of ventilation is to minimize lung trauma by avoiding overdistension and repetitive alveolar collapse, while providing adequate oxygenation. Protective ventilation is not simply synonymous of low tidal volume ventilation, but it also involves positive end-expiratory pressure, lower FiO(2), recruitment maneuvers, and lower ventilatory pressures.
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To summarize recent studies of neurocognitive dysfunction after cardiac surgery, as well as to outline efforts and approaches toward advancing the field. ⋯ Adverse cognitive and neurologic outcomes following cardiac surgery range from discrete neurocognitive deficits to severe neurologic injury such as stroke and even death. The elderly are at higher risk of suffering these outcomes and the public health dimension of this problem is expected to accelerate. Future studies should combine advanced neuroimaging with genomic, transcriptional, proteomic, and metabolomic profiling to improve our understanding of the pathophysiologic mechanisms and optimize the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of neurocognitive injury.