Current opinion in anaesthesiology
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This review aims to summarize results of recently published studies concerning clonidine application in paediatric anaesthesia, to analyse trends in these studies, and to discuss perspectives of the perioperative use of clonidine for children. ⋯ Clonidine may be less favored than midazolam as premedication for children because of inferior clonidine-induced sedation. Additional comparative studies are required, however, to confirm this finding. On the other hand, clonidine-induced analgesia may well be useful and find wide application in paediatric anaesthesia. Prospective multicentre trials using a larger number of patients will be needed to verify the usefulness of caudal clonidine for postoperative pain relief. Prophylactic use of clonidine against sevoflurane-induced agitation may represent a new and promising application. Assessment of the efficacy of clonidine in potentiating regional anaesthesia/analgesia by local anaesthetics in children also needs more investigation. Moreover, it may be worthwhile to try new successful applications demonstrated in adults for paediatric anaesthesia.
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In neonates, epidural catheters inserted at the sacral hiatus can easily be advanced to a lumbar or thoracic level. These 'caudal catheters' are popular because they allow the neonate to benefit from epidural analgesia without the concerns of spinal cord injury potentially associated with primary thoracic placement in an asleep neonate. This review looks at use and benefits, and risks and complications of caudal epidural catheters in neonates. ⋯ Epidural anesthesia and analgesia for neonates should be performed and managed by pediatric anesthesiologists. Potential risks and complications must be appreciated and all steps to maximize safety of the technique must be taken. In particular, close postoperative observation and pain service management are indispensable. Future research should investigate the risks of caudal and segmentally placed catheters in neonates, study the role of epidural analgesia in outcome improvement for neonates, and guide us to safer use of local anesthetics suitable for neonates with their pharmacologic immaturity.
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Current reviews and consensus documents now recommend a more discriminating approach to the traditional practices of delivering liberal infusions of intravenous fluid to all major trauma patients with suspected or known major hemorrhage. The evolving evidence suggests that aggressive fluid resuscitation prior to hemostasis leads to additional bleeding through hydraulic acceleration of hemorrhage, soft clot dissolution, and dilution of clotting factors. ⋯ Although most clinicians still generally support fluid resuscitation for multisystem blunt trauma, particularly with head injury, the most recent experimental data have begun to challenge this traditional practice as well, suggesting a 'slow infusion' approach when there is risk for uncontrolled internal bleeding. By providing oxygen delivery with slow, limited infusion, new hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers might help to resolve the current dilemma of having to limit preoperative resuscitation when there is risk of uncontrolled hemorrhage.
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Hemorrhage after traumatic injury results in coagulopathy which only worsens the situation. This coagulopathy is caused by depletion and dilution of clotting factors and platelets, increased fibrinolytic activity, hypothermia, metabolic changes and anemia. ⋯ Bedside coagulation monitoring permits relevant impairment of the coagulation system to be detected very early and the efficacy of the hemostatic therapy to be controlled directly. Administration of fresh frozen plasma, platelet concentrations, clotting factors and probably antifibrinolytic agents is essential in restoring the impaired coagulation system in trauma patients.
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Primary emergency medicine systems in developed countries are well organized. Besides this primary system a secondary interhospital transport system has been developed in the past decade. ⋯ This article outlines the current status of these secondary interhospital transfer systems, their components, possibilities, advantages or disadvantages, and the actual literature. Surprisingly, the available scientific data on these cost-intensive and highly developed systems are quite insufficient.