Der Anaesthesist
-
During the last decades anesthesia has developed into a wide ranging specialty in western countries, whereas in most developing and newly industrializing nations it still focuses on its core discipline, the perioperative care of the surgical patient. Poor socioeconomic status and inadequate financing of health systems result in a high burden of disease, a high rate of self-financing of healthcare costs by the patients, as well as insufficient personnel, infra-structural and material equipment of most healthcare facilities. Important limiting factors for anesthesia are low educational standards and a widespread lack of oxygen and medical gas supplies, as well as locally serviceable medical equipment. Studies evaluating the status of anesthesia in developing and newly industrializing nations in detail are urgently needed in order to provide aid on national and international as well as institutional and private levels for the development of anesthesia in poor countries.
-
Adrenomedullin (AM) is an endogenous vasodilatory peptide hormone, which plays a key role in the regulation and preservation of cardiovascular and pulmonary functions. Clinical and experimental studies have demonstrated that AM represents an alternative therapeutic option in the treatment of pulmonary hypertension. ⋯ Experimental studies also suggest that infusion of exogenous AM might be a rational approach to prevent and treat hypodynamic septic shock. The objectives of this review article are to characterize the regulative properties of AM and to discuss clinical and experimental studies which allow to judge the role of AM in the setting of cardiovascular dysfunction and sepsis.
-
Pulmonary hypertension can arise in the presence of acute cardiopulmonary decompensation or develop as a chronic and progressive disease in association with connective tissue diseases, infectious diseases, or metabolic diseases, or in the form of idiopathic pulmonary hypertension. Impaired regulation of endogenous vasoactive mediators, growth factors, and thrombotic factors leads to pulmonary artery vasoconstriction, endothelial and epithelial proliferation, and thrombotic vascular obstruction, with resulting right heart failure. There is no curative treatment for chronic pulmonary hypertension, and the immediate objective of palliative treatment is to relieve right heart stress by reducing pulmonary arterial pressure with the aid of pulmonary vasodilators. ⋯ In the perioperative period, it is essential that anything that could lead to worsening of pulmonary hypertension is avoided, or at least recognized and treated at an early stage. Intraoperatively, imminent acute right heart decompensation is treated by improving right-ventricular contractility and reducing right-ventricular afterload. In the postoperative period, monitoring and optimization of the cardiopulmonary status, adequate analgesia and sedation, and careful anticoagulation must be ensured.
-
Review Case Reports
[Mask ventilation as an exit strategy of endotracheal intubation].
The goal of ventilation in an unprotected airway is to optimize oxygenation and carbon dioxide elimination of the patient. This can be achieved with techniques such as mouth-to-mouth ventilation, but preferably with bag-valve-mask ventilation. Securing the airway with an endotracheal tube is the gold standard, but excellent success in emergency airway management depends on initial training, retraining, and actual frequency of a given procedure in the routine. "Patients do not die from failure to intubate; they die from failure to stop trying to intubate or from undiagnosed oesophageal intubation" (Scott 1986). ⋯ During ventilation of an unprotected airway, stomach inflation and subsequent severe complications may result. Careful ventilation can be performed with low inspiratory pressure and flow, and subsequently with a low tidal volume at a high inspiratory fraction of oxygen. This could be a strategy to achieve more patient safety.
-
Review
[Residual neuromuscular blockades. Clinical consequences, frequency and avoidance strategies].
Even after administration in routine clinical dosages, muscle relaxants can lead to long-lasting residual blockades which increase the risk of severe postoperative pulmonary complications. Even without the additional effects from analgetics, sedatives or anaesthetics, a partial neuromuscular blockade, which cannot reliably be avoided either by the anaesthetist alone or by the additional use of nerve stimulators (train-of-four [TOF] ratio 0.5-0.9), can cause reductions in the vital capacity and the hypoxic breathing response, as well as obstruction of the upper airway and disruption of pharangeal function. ⋯ If the course of a neuromuscular blockade is continually monitored during the whole anaesthetic procedure using the TOF ratio and not only occasionally at the end, a TOF ratio of 1 measured with an acceleromyograph (e.g. TOF-watch) promises an adequate neuromuscular recovery from the effects of muscle relaxants.