Anaesthesia
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The effects of prescribing guidelines for analgesia were assessed by auditing prescriptions for opioids before and after the introduction of hospital prescribing guidelines. Opioid prescriptions were collected by the pharmacy department over a 2-week period in November 1994 and repeated in November 1995. ⋯ There was a statistically significant decrease in the number of prescriptions that were inadequate for both dose and frequency according to both the British National Formulary recommendations (18-3%; p < 0.001) and our Acute Pain Service guidelines (36-17%; p = 0.001). The use of accessible prescribing guidelines promotes demonstrable improvements in opioid prescribing.
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A simple automatic device to inflate the tracheal tube cuff during emergency tracheal intubation is described. It was tested in 60 patients undergoing elective surgery and found to be a useful and efficient adjunct.
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Comment Letter Comparative Study
Comparison of the Macintosh and McCoy laryngoscope blades.