Anaesthesia
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A 38-year-old woman experienced a massive postpartum haemorrhage 30 minutes after emergency caesarean delivery. The patient became severely haemodynamically compromised with an unrecordable blood pressure. ⋯ Blood and blood products were deployed in conjunction with intra-operative cell salvage and transoesophageal Doppler cardiac output monitoring was used to assess adequacy of volume replacement. Haemorrhage control was finally achieved with the use of recombinant factor VIIa and hysterectomy.
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The 50% and 95% effective doses of desflurane for removal of the classic laryngeal mask airway after suction of the upper airway, in anaesthetised spontaneously breathing adult patients, are not known. To determine these, we studied 38 healthy patients, aged between 18 and 44 years. The target desflurane concentration in each individual patient was determined by the Dixon up-and-down method. ⋯ The initial desflurane target concentration was set at 6% and up-down desflurane increments were 0.1%. This continued until there were at least six crossover pairs. From the probit analysis, the 50% effective dose of desflurane was 5.29% (95% CI 5.132-5.379%) and the 95% effective dose was 5.55% (95% CI 5.429-6.394%).
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Ultrasound applications in peri-operative medicine have become common place in modern anaesthesia practice. Anaesthetists have performed transoesophageal echocardiography in cardiac and selected non-cardiac surgery for over two decades. We aimed to assess the indications, impact on clinical management and accuracy of focused cardiovascular ultrasound performed by anaesthetists in the peri-operative period. ⋯ Some degree of aortic stenosis was present in 47 out of 170 (26%) of patients; mitral valve disease (30 out of 170 (18%)) and pulmonary hypertension (25 out of 170 (14%)) were also common. Changes in peri-operative management occurred in 140 out of 170 (82%) patients and major findings correlated with a formal cardiology transthoracic echocardiogram in 52 out of 57 (92%) patients. Focused cardiovascular ultrasound performed by anaesthetists in the peri-operative period accurately detects major cardiac pathology and significantly alters peri-operative management.