Acta anaesthesiologica Scandinavica
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Acta Anaesthesiol Scand · Jul 2014
ReviewNew oral anticoagulants: clinical indications, monitoring and treatment of acute bleeding complications.
New oral anticoagulants like the direct thrombin inhibitor, dabigatran (Pradaxa®), and factor Xa-inhibitors, rivaroxaban (Xarelto®) and apixaban (Eliquis®) are available for prophylaxis and treatment of thromboembolic disease. They are emerging alternatives to warfarin and provide equal or better clinical outcome together with reduced need for routine monitoring. Methods for measuring drug concentrations are available, although a correlation between plasma drug concentrations and the risk of bleeding has not been firmly established. ⋯ Further challenges regarding patients receiving new oral anticoagulants who presents with major bleeding or need for emergency surgery pose a unique problem. No established agents are clinically available to reverse the anticoagulant effect, although preclinical data report prothrombin complex concentrate as more efficient than fresh frozen plasma or other prohaemostatic agents. This review summaries current knowledge on approved new oral anticoagulants and discusses clinical aspects of monitoring, with particular focus on the management of the bleeding patient.
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Acta Anaesthesiol Scand · Jul 2014
Observational StudyConcentrations of remifentanil, propofol, fentanyl, and midazolam during rewarming from therapeutic hypothermia.
The clearance of sedatives and analgesics may be reduced by therapeutic hypothermia. However, little is known about the concentrations of such drugs during rewarming. The aim of this study was to describe the serum concentrations of sedatives and analgesics during rewarming from therapeutic hypothermia. ⋯ Concentrations of remifentanil, propofol, and midazolam decreased during rewarming from therapeutic hypothermia when adjusting for rates of infusion. No changes were demonstrated for fentanyl.
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Acta Anaesthesiol Scand · Jul 2014
Comparative StudyKnee surgery recovery: Post-operative Quality of Recovery Scale comparison of age and complexity of surgery.
Initial validation and feasibility for the Post-operative Quality of Recovery Scale (PQRS) was published in 2010. Ongoing validation includes studies to determine whether this scale can discriminate differences in recovery between cohorts. ⋯ Knee replacement had a large effect on recovery compared with knee arthroscopy. Age had minimal effect on recovery after knee arthroscopy. The study showed the ability of the PQRS to discriminate recovery in different domains.
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Acta Anaesthesiol Scand · Jul 2014
Case ReportsRecombinant human growth hormone improves cognitive capacity in a pain patient exposed to chronic opioids.
During recent decades, the increasing use of opioids for chronic non-cancer pain has raised concerns regarding tolerance, addiction, and importantly cognitive dysfunction. Current research suggests that the somatotrophic axis could play an important role in cognitive function. Administration of growth hormone (GH) to GH-deficient humans and experimental animals has been shown to result in significant improvements in cognitive capacity. ⋯ In the right hippocampus, the N-acetylaspartate/creatine ratio (reflecting nerve cell function) was initially low but increased significantly during rhGH treatment, as did subjective cognitive, physical and emotional functioning. This case report indicates that rhGH replacement therapy could improve cognitive behaviour and well-being, as well as hippocampal metabolism and functioning in opioid-treated patients with chronic pain. The idea that GH could affect brain function and repair disabilities induced by long-term exposure to opioid analgesia is supported.
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Acta Anaesthesiol Scand · Jul 2014
A calibration study of SAPS II with Norwegian intensive care registry data.
Mortality prediction is important in intensive care. The Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS) II is a tool for predicting such mortality. However, the original SAPS II is poorly calibrated to current intensive care unit (ICU) populations because it draws on data, which is more than 20 years old. We aimed to improve the calibration of SAPS II using data from the Norwegian Intensive Care Registry (NIR). This is the first recalibration of SAPS II for Nordic data. ⋯ As expected, Model B is better calibrated than Model A, and both models have similar uniformity of fit and equal discrimination. Introducing Model B into Norwegian ICUs may improve precision in decision-making. Units will have a more realistic benchmark for the assessment of ICU performance. Mortality risk estimates from Model B are better than previous SAPS II estimates have been.