Der Anaesthesist
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Review
[Current developments in xenon research. Importance for anesthesia and intensive care medicine].
The noble gas xenon exerts favorable anesthetic properties along with remarkable hemodynamic stability in healthy patients undergoing elective surgery. It represents the nearly ideal anesthetic and provides safe and well controllable anesthesia although the exact mechanism by which xenon produces anesthesia remains to be elucidated. In addition xenon offers organ protective properties for vital organs including the brain, heart and kidneys which seem to be synergistic when used in combination with therapeutic hypothermia. As the high cost of xenon will probably preclude its wider use as a routine anesthetic, data from extensive tests in large numbers of high risk patients is needed to confirm its possible superiority in this setting.
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Since paracetamol was first synthesized in 1878 it has become one of the most popular and widely used drugs for the first-line treatment of fever and pain. The reasons for this popularity are a wide variety of formulations, an assumed positive safety record and the wide availability as an over-the-counter drug. ⋯ The aim of the present review is to give an update of the recent literature on the efficacy of paracetamol for postoperative pain and on the value of the clinical relevance of different adverse effects of paracetamol. Finally, based on the current findings the authors try to assess the role of paracetamol for the treatment of postoperative pain.
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The introduction of the diagnosis-related groups reimbursement system has increased cost pressures. Due to the interaction of many different professional groups, analysis and optimization of internal coordination and scheduling in the operating room (OR) is mandatory. The aim of this study was to analyze the processes at a university hospital in order to optimize strategies by identifying potential weak points. ⋯ These results indicate that optimization of perioperative processes considerably contribute to the success of OR organization. Additionally, the implementation of standard operating procedures and a generally accepted OR statute are mandatory. In this way an efficient OR management can contribute to the economic success of a hospital.
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In Germany only 2-9% of rescue missions performed by emergency physicians are pediatric emergencies. Therefore, an emergency physician has to deal with a pediatric emergency on average every 1.1-1.3 months. There are only a few studies in the literature evaluating the frequency of "invasive" techniques and procedures (e.g. vascular access, endotracheal intubation, alternative airway techniques and insertion of chest tube) in pediatric patients in the prehospital setting performed by German emergency physicians. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the frequency of these kinds of procedures in pediatric emergencies in the field of the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS). ⋯ Compared to the results of other studies the number of pediatric emergency patients with a NACA score IV-VII in this study is very high. Furthermore, the percentages of non-invasive monitoring procedures applied to the patients as well as invasive therapeutic procedures performed by the HEMS team were also high. Therefore, a special pediatric training course for emergency physicians seems to be necessary.
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Securing the airway is a rarely performed procedure in the out-of-hospital setting. In recent years evidence has been accumulated indicating that out-of-hospital airway management is more challenging as compared to elective situations even for experienced health care providers. Furthermore, several authors have questioned the benefit of out-of-hospital tracheal intubation. This review argues the problems regarding out-of-hospital airway management studies and discusses potential solutions which may improve out-of-hospital health care.