Anaesthesia
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Erythropoietin to treat anaemia in critical care patients: a multicentre feasibility study.
Anaemia is common and associated with poor outcomes during and after critical illness. The use of erythropoietin to treat such anaemia is controversial with older studies showing mixed results. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the feasibility of performing a large multicentre randomised controlled trial of erythropoietin in this setting. ⋯ The overall recruitment rate was 73.7% with 8.4 participants recruited on average per month. The last haemoglobin measured before hospital discharge (or death) was similar between the groups with a mean (SD) haemoglobin of 107 (21) vs. 95 (25) g.l-1 , mean difference (95%CI) 11 (-4-26), g.l-1 , p = 0.154. A large, multicentre randomised controlled trial of erythropoietin to treat anaemia in ICU patients is feasible and necessary to determine effects of erythropoietin on mortality in ICU anaemic patients.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
A randomised controlled trial of the analgesia nociception index for intra-operative remifentanil dose and pain after gynaecological laparotomy.
We aimed to investigate the effect of the analgesia nociception index on postoperative pain. We randomly allocated 170 women scheduled for gynaecological laparotomy and analysed results from 159: in 80 women, remifentanil was infused to maintain analgesia nociception indices 50-70; and in 79 women, remifentanil was infused to maintain systolic blood pressure < 120% of baseline values. ⋯ Mean (SD) doses of fentanyl in recovery were 53.6 (26.9) μg vs. 54.8 (20.8) μg, p = 0.74. Intra-operative remifentanil doses were 0.124 (0.050) μg.kg-1 .min-1 vs. 0.129 (0.044) μg.kg-1 .min-1 , p = 0.55.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Postoperative pulmonary complications in older patients undergoing elective surgery with a supraglottic airway device or tracheal intubation.
The two most commonly used airway management techniques during general anaesthesia are supraglottic airway devices and tracheal tubes. In older patients undergoing elective non-cardiothoracic surgery under general anaesthesia with positive pressure ventilation, we hypothesised that a composite measure of in-hospital postoperative pulmonary complications would be less frequent when a supraglottic airway device was used compared with a tracheal tube. We studied patients aged ≥ 70 years in 17 clinical centres. ⋯ Pre-operatively, 2431 (88.4%) patients were estimated to have a postoperative pulmonary complication risk index of 1-2. Postoperative pulmonary complications, mostly coughing, occurred in 270 of 1387 patients (19.5%) allocated to a supraglottic airway device and 342 of 1364 patients (25.1%) assigned to a tracheal tube (absolute difference -5.6% (95%CI -8.7 to -2.5), risk ratio 0.78 (95%CI 0.67-0.89); p < 0.001). Among otherwise healthy older patients undergoing elective surgery under general anaesthesia with intra-operative positive pressure ventilation of their lungs, there were fewer postoperative pulmonary complications when the airway was managed with a supraglottic airway device compared with a tracheal tube.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Videolaryngoscopy vs. flexible fibrescopy for tracheal intubation in patients with cervical spine immobilisation: a randomised controlled trial.
In patients with cervical spine immobilisation, tracheal intubation devices other than a direct laryngoscope are frequently used to facilitate tracheal intubation and avoid related complications. In this randomised controlled trial, we compared videolaryngoscopic and fibrescopic tracheal intubation in patients with a cervical collar. Tracheal intubation was performed using either a videolaryngoscope with a non-channelled Macintosh blade (n = 166) or a flexible fibrescope (n = 164) in patients having elective cervical spine surgery whose neck was immobilised with a cervical collar to simulate a difficult airway. ⋯ Median (IQR [range]) time to tracheal intubation was shorter (50.0 (41.0-72.0 [25.0-170.0]) s vs. 81.0 (65.0-107.0 [24.0-178.0]) s, p < 0.001) and additional airway manoeuvres were less frequent (30/166 (18.1%) vs. 91/164 (55.5%), p < 0.001) in the videolaryngoscope group compared with the fibrescope group. The incidence and severity of intubation-related airway complications were not different between the two groups. When performing tracheal intubation in patients with a cervical collar, videolaryngoscopy with a non-channelled Macintosh blade was superior to flexible fibrescopy.