Anaesthesia
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Coagulopathic bleeding during and after cardiac surgery is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Viscoelastic testing is increasingly used instead of laboratory testing. Our aim was to compare a new viscoelastic point-of-care device, the Quantra® System, with thromboelastography and standard laboratory testing. ⋯ These Quantra thresholds showed high negative predictive value for low platelets (platelet clot stiffness, 97.4%), prolonged activated partial thromboplastin time (clot time, 92.6%) and reduced maximum amplitude on thromboelastography (clot stiffness, 93.6%). The Quantra predicted clinical need for transfusion of platelets (area under the curve 0.71, p = 0.001) but all tests performed poorly at predicting the need for fresh frozen plasma transfusion. We have shown that point-of-care testing using the novel Quantra system provides useful data for guiding transfusion management.
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Review Meta Analysis
Analgesic benefits and clinical role of the posterior suprascapular nerve block in shoulder surgery: a systematic review, meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis.
Although suprascapular nerve block reduces nausea & vomiting and improves patient satisfaction after shoulder surgery when compared to morphine alone, it results only in clinically insignificant objective improvement of analgesia.
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