Der Anaesthesist
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Despite substantial success in the anesthetic and surgical management of cardiac surgery, patients frequently show postoperative complications and organ dysfunctions. This is highly relevant for mid- to long-term outcomes. ⋯ Beside the use of cardioplegia and hypothermia, the use of volatile anesthetics is well-established during cardiac surgery because of its conditioning and protective properties. Regardless of the promising results derived from experimental studies and small clinical trials, the majority of other approaches failed to translate their findings into the clinic. Therefore, systematic experimental studies are needed to identify potential confounding factors that may affect the protective effects.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Effect of using a laryngeal tube on the no-flow time in a simulated, single-rescuer, basic life support setting with inexperienced users.
The laryngeal tube (LT) is a recommended alternative to endotracheal intubation during advanced life support (ALS). Its insertion is relatively simple; therefore, it may also serve as an alternative to bag mask ventilation (BMV) for untrained personnel performing basic life support (BLS). Data support the influence of LT on the no-flow time (NFT) compared with BMV during ALS in manikin studies. ⋯ The NFT was significantly shorter in the later periods in a single-rescuer, cardiac arrest scenario when using an LT without previous training compared with BMV with previous training. A possible explanation for this result may be the complexity and workload of alternating tasks (e.g., time loss when reclining the head and positioning the mask for each ventilation during BMV).
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Central venous catheterization is an invasive procedure which can be associated with severe complications. These include in particular unsuccessful arterial puncture and vascular injuries, which in addition to loss of blood can lead to massive soft tissue swelling. A 63-year-old female patient developed massive cervical bleeding during ultrasound-guided internal jugular vein puncture and the rapidly enlarging hematoma led to compromisation of the airway. A cannot intubate, cannot ventilate situation developed and the subsequent hypoxia led to cardiac arrest that was only resolved after emergency surgical tracheotomy during cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
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Case Reports
[Implementation of regularly performed resuscitation training at a hyperbaric treatment center].
Medical emergency situations and even cardiac arrest can occur during treatment of patients in therapeutic hyperbaric chambers just as in other clinical departments; therefore, high quality structured management should be implemented for dealing with emergencies in this special working area. To ensure this the emergency medical treatment should not only be performed according to the current state of medical knowledge but needs to take the special features of the hyperbaric environment including safety aspects into account. ⋯ Through annual compulsory emergency training of the complete staff of the hyperbaric unit at the actual workplace, a structural and confident approach to dealing with emergencies and resuscitation situations was observed. By the use of on-site simulator training even in specialized hospital units, deficits and tentativeness regarding logistics, course of action, organization and communication in emergency situations can be minimized to provide optimum patient care in a real life emergency situation by focusing on the medical measures.
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The ultrasound-guided venipuncture of the internal jugular vein for placement of a central venous catheter is well established. For verification of the catheter tip position mostly intracardiac ECG or chest radiography are used. Previously, we established the right supraclavicular fossa view for ultrasound based verification of the catheter placement in the superior vena cava utilizing a microconvex probe. The microconvex probe has a small footprint. However, not all ultrasound systems used in the operating theater are equipped with a microconvex transducer. ⋯ The microconvex transducer as compared to the linear probe is superior in visualizing the superior vena cava. Possible reasons are a smaller footprint, a better degree of freedom for angulation and a greater penetration depth of the microconvex probe.