Der Anaesthesist
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
[The effect of the laryngeal mask airway on the postoperative incidence of vomiting and sore throat in children].
100 ASA I and II children, aged 4 to 14 years, and scheduled for strabismus surgery, were randomly assigned to one of the following groups: group 1 (n = 50): endotracheal tube, group 2 (n = 50): laryngeal mask airway. Apart from airway management, the anaesthesiological procedures were identical in both groups: induction with 2-3 mg/kg propofol, 0.02 mg/kg alfentanil, 0.05 mg/kg vecuronium, and 0.01 mg/kg atropine. After endotracheal intubation or insertion of the laryngeal mask, anaesthesia was continued with 6-15 mg/kg.h propofol and 10-30 micrograms/kg.h alfentanil. All patients were ventilated with N2O/O2 (2:1). No antiemetics were given, gastric contents were not aspirated. Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) were recorded by 24 h, the incidence of sore throats was recorded 8, 12, and 24 h post-operatively. ⋯ In children undergoing strabismus surgery, the laryngeal mask airway was superior to the endotracheal tube in terms of PONV and was associated with fewer local complications such as sore throat.
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Treatment of pulmonary hypertension is an important issue in intensive care. One therapeutic regimen involves the intravenous administration of prostacyclin (PGI2). This, however, is accompanied by diminished hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction, reduced arterial oxygenation, and systemic vasodilation. ⋯ Furthermore, some patients do not respond to the treatment. In some individuals a reduction in pulmonary hypertension can be seen, while others lack even pulmonary vasodilation. The exact pathophysiological mechanisms remain to be investigated.
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Pain is a major, but largely neglected problem in AIDS patients. The aim of this article is to review the etiology of pain manifestations in AIDS patients in different organ systems and to discuss appropriate treatment strategies. The most common pain symptoms in AIDS patients are headache, oral cavity pain, dysphagia and adynophagia, chest pain, abdominal pain and pain related to peripheral neuropathy. ⋯ In view of the multiple organs involved in the presentation of AIDS requiring multiple drugs, careful attention to side effects, contraindications and drug interactions is warranted, when administering pain medications. Fear of the complexity of these issues should, however, not prevent effective pain management for these patients, who suffer from a fatal disease. A multidisciplinary approach to pain in AIDS patients, similar to the approach in patients with cancer, is desirable.
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial
[Measurement of human cerebrovascular circulation. Comparison of Kety-Schmidt technique with the intravenous 133-xenon clearance technique].
In this study cerebral blood flow (CBF) was simultaneously measured with the Kety-Schmidt method and the intravenous 133Xe clearance technique. CBF, cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO2), and CO2 reactivity of CBF were compared under fentanyl-midazolam anaesthesia and varying paCO2 levels. ⋯ Most probably due to contamination with radioactivity from slowly perfused extracerebral tissues the intravenous 133Xe-clearance technique underestimates CBF, CMRO2, and cerebrovascular CO2 reactivity, at least when CBF15 values are used as flow parameters.
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial
[Cardiac output determination with transpulmonary thermodilution. An alternative to pulmonary catheterization?].
Cardiac output measurements are often helpful in the management of critically ill patients and high risk-patients. In this study an alternative technique for measurement of cardiac output by the transpulmonary indicator dilution technique (TPID) was evaluated in comparison to conventional thermodilution using a pulmonary artery catheter. With TPID, a thermistor-tipped catheter (the smallest available is 1.3 F) is placed in the aorta via a femoral artery introducer. Thus, TPID can also be used in very small children in whom placement of a pulmonary artery catheter may be difficult or even impossible. In principle, TPID is less invasive since the possible complications of the pulmonary catheters are avoided. We investigated the accuracy and reproducibility of transpulmonary thermodilution in patients over a broad range in age and body surface. ⋯ The amplitude of the typical arterial thermodilution curve shows a smaller and more delayed course than the pulmonary artery thermodilution curve. There was a very good correlation between the values found by pulmonary and TPID cardiac output measurements (R = 0.968). There was a slightly smaller cardiac output value measured by the TPID (Bias = -4.7 +/- 1.5% sem) The reproducibility of duplicate measurements with the two methods were nearly the same, the standard deviation of the difference was 10.9% for the pulmonary thermodilution method and 11.7% for TPID. DISCUSSION. TPID gives an alternative technique for measurement of cardiac output. We showed over a broad range in age and body surface a very good correlation with thermodilution measurements in the pulmonary artery. The slightly smaller values for TPID are explained by early recirculation, for clinical purposes the difference is negligible. However, the reproducibility of a method is clinically very important. Both methods showed in duplicate measurements basically the same reproducibility. The disadvantage of TPID in being more sensitive to baseline alteration is counterbalanced by less respiratory variability in comparison to the conventional thermodilution technique. However, by increasing the amount of injected indicator (i.e., 0.2 ml/kg approximately equal to 15 ml in an adult) it is possible to reduce the effect of baseline alteration. By using fiberoptic catheters it is even possible to use TPID as double-indicator dilution technique to measure intrathoracic blood volume (ITBV) and extravascular lung water (EVLW). We conclude that in many patients TPID might be an attractive, less invasive and reliable alternative to conventional cardiac output measurement by pulmonary artery catheter.