Der Anaesthesist
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In naturally occurring numbers the frequencies of digits 1-9 in the leading position are counterintuitively distributed because the frequencies of occurrence are unequal. Benford-Newcomb's law describes the expected distribution of these frequencies. It was previously shown that known fraudulent articles consistently violated this law. ⋯ All 12 of the known falsified articles violated Benford-Newcomb's law, which indicated that this analysis had a high sensitivity. The low specificity of the assessment may be explained by the assumptions made about the articles identified for comparison. Violations of Benford-Newcomb's law about the frequencies of the leading digits cannot serve as proof of falsification but they may provide a basis for deeper discussions between the editor and author about a submitted work.
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The brachial plexus is commonly blocked at the interscalene level for shoulder and proximal humeral surgery. There are only a few publications about the interscalene technique in pediatric patients for a peripheral nerve block. Ultrasound-guided peripheral nerve block has become increasingly more popular for pediatric patients because of high success rates and safety concerns. We used ultrasound-guided interscalene brachial plexus block in an 18-month-old child with an acute upper respiratory infection who had a supracondylar fracture of the humerus.
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Regarding survival and quality of life, recent mass casualty incidents have once more emphasized the importance of early identification of the correct degree of injury or illness, to enable prioritizing treatment of patients and transportation to an appropriate hospital. The present study investigated international triage algorithms in terms of sensitivity (SE) and specificity (SP) as well as the process duration in a relevant emergency patient cohort. ⋯ Triage procedures with acceptable diagnostic quality exist to identify the most severely injured. Due to its high rate of false positive results (overtriage) in this study, the recently developed PRIOR algorithm could result in exhaustion of available resources for the severely injured and therefore to undertreatment of correctly assigned triage category I cases within mass casualty incidents. Non-surgical patients are still poorly allocated by the available algorithms. Contribution available free of charge by "Free Access".
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The number of patients treated with cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIED) is continously increasing. Knowledge of the medical indications and technical mode of functioning of these devices is a basic prerequisite for the safe perioperative care of this patient cohort. ⋯ The safe performance of interventions is possible as long as some basic rules are followed. An interdisciplinary approach involving all participating disciplines is necessary in order to adequately deal with the high demands placed on the logistics.
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A malignant hyperthermia (MH) crisis is a potentially fatal complication in anesthesia and intensive care units (ICU). Rapid administration and adequate dosage of dantrolene is the only known effective pharmacological and causal treatment of an MH crisis. International anesthesiology societies recommend an initial dose of 2.0-2.5 mg/kg body weight (BW). The necessary total dosage should be titrated up to 10 mg/kg BW depending on the effectiveness. ⋯ Almost all anesthesiologists participating in the online survey use volatile anesthethics and/or succinylcholine. Whereas almost all participants have access to dantrolene, more than half of the units have a stock of dantolene, which is less than that recommended by the DGAI. In the case of low dantrolene stock, only 61% of anesthesia departments have access to additional dantrolene within a time frame of 15min . The results of this online survey demonstrate that the stock of dantrolene may be insufficient in some German hospitals and anesthesiology practices.