Anaesthesia
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Pre-operative anaemia is associated with higher rates of transfusion and worse outcomes, including prolonged hospital stay, morbidity and mortality. Iron deficiency is associated with significantly lower haemoglobin levels throughout the peri-operative period and more frequent blood transfusion. Correction of iron stores before surgery forms part of the first pillar of patient blood management. ⋯ In patients with proven iron deficiency anaemia, supplementation with intravenous iron showed only a modest effect on haemoglobin and this group still had a significantly higher transfusion requirement than the non-anaemic cohort. Supplementation with intravenous iron did not improve outcomes compared with patients with anaemia who did not receive intravenous iron and did not reduce peri-operative risk to non-anaemic levels. Questions remain regarding identification of patients who will receive most benefit, the use of concomitant treatment with other agents, and the optimum time frames for treatment in order to produce benefit in the real-world setting.
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Negative-pressure ventilation may have several advantages compared with positive-pressure ventilation. Negative-pressure ventilation simulates natural lung movements, does not require tracheal intubation and may reduce the incidence of barotrauma and adverse cardiovascular events. A group of engineers, doctors and nurses designed and bench-tested the Exovent, a new, lightweight, torso-only, negative-pressure ventilatory support system. ⋯ The Exovent allowed good nursing and monitoring access and was comfortable in both the semi-recumbent and prone positions. The Exovent delivered effective continuous negative extra-thoracic pressure and negative-pressure ventilation plus negative end-expiratory pressure to healthy adults. Further trials are needed to investigate the clinical utility of the device.