Anaesthesia
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Pain-free injection in infants. Use of a lignocaine-prilocaine cream to prevent pain at intravenous induction of general anaesthesia in 1-5-year-old children.
A randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind study was undertaken in 111 children between the ages of 1 and 5 years to assess the efficacy of EMLA 5% cream in the alleviation of venepuncture pain at intravenous induction of general anaesthesia using 27-gauge needles. Pain assessment was made by an operating department assistant using both verbal rating scale and visual analogue scale methods. ⋯ Significantly lower pain scores were recorded in the children treated with EMLA cream (verbal rating scale: premedicated p less than 0.05, unpremedicated p less than 0.001; visual analogue scale: premedicated p less than 0.0005, unpremedicated p less than 0.0002). No variation in analgesia was found for application times between 30 and 300 minutes and there were no serious side effects.
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Cerebral blood flow, cerebral oxygen consumption, lactate and glucose metabolism were measured in 13 patients during anaesthesia with nitrous oxide, oxygen and enflurane 0.5% and after 30 minutes infusion of propofol. The mean blood concentration of propofol was 4.06 micrograms/ml. ⋯ Cerebral oxygen consumption decreased by 18.25%. Changes in the electro-encephalograph were related to the blood levels of propofol.
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical Trial
Intra-ocular pressure changes during induction of anaesthesia and tracheal intubation. A comparison of thiopentone and propofol followed by vecuronium.
Intra-ocular pressure was measured during induction of anaesthesia with propofol (n = 40) or thiopentone (n = 40) followed by vecuronium to facilitate tracheal intubation which was carried out 3 minutes after the administration of relaxant. The average induction doses were 2.15 and 4.83 mg/kg for propofol and thiopentone, respectively. Half the patients in each group received a supplementary dose of the same induction agent (propofol 1.0 mg/kg or thiopentone 2.0 mg/kg) (corrected) prior to intubation. ⋯ Supplementary doses of induction agents before intubation attenuated the increase in intra-ocular pressure. Propofol was significantly more effective in this respect and this group showed the lowest intra-ocular pressure throughout the study period. However, administration of propofol resulted in a 30% incidence of pain on injection and a decrease in systolic arterial pressure of more than 30% in about half the patients.
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The pharmacokinetics of a constant rate infusion of propofol were studied in 11 patients who received total intravenous anaesthesia for ENT surgery. Alfentanil was administered as an exponentially decreasing infusion using a computer-assisted infusion device with a constant target plasma alfentanil concentration of 300 ng/ml. Propofol was infused at a constant rate of 6 mg/kg/hours. ⋯ Only three data sets were significantly underestimated after the infusion was stopped (mean bias 11.9% (SD 25.5]. The elimination half-life of alfentanil was approximately 75 minutes (SD 21). We conclude that alfentanil does not interfere with the pharmacokinetic profile of propofol but that propofol induces higher plasma alfentanil concentrations than expected.
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Comparative Study
Comparison of a total intravenous anaesthetic technique using a propofol infusion, with an inhalational technique using enflurane for day case surgery.
A total intravenous anaesthetic technique with a propofol infusion for maintenance of anaesthesia was compared with an inhalational technique that used oxygen, nitrous oxide and enflurane in 98 unpremedicated patients who presented for day case surgery. Overall quality of anaesthesia during induction and maintenance was comparable in both groups. ⋯ Recovery times and scores using the Steward scoring system were not significantly different. Nausea and vomiting were slightly less frequent in the propofol group.