British journal of anaesthesia
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Quantitative study of Lowe's square-root-of-time method of closed-system anaesthesia.
Intermittent injection of liquid anaesthetic into a closed breathing system is particularly suitable in countries with limited resources. A method of calculating appropriate times and magnitudes of the injected doses was described by Lowe but the method has never been assessed rigorously. Such an assessment was the purpose of this study. ⋯ However, end-tidal partial pressure (just before each dose) stabilized at a steady level of only 0.97, 0.42 and 0.77 MAC for halothane, enflurane and isoflurane, respectively. Recovery from enflurane was much more rapid than that from the other agents but no patient admitted to any dreams. We conclude that the rate of uptake of anaesthetic declines more slowly than predicted and that the patients receiving enflurane were less deeply anaesthetized because the greater hypotensive effect of enflurane led to the use of smaller doses.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Interactions between mivacurium and pancuronium.
We have compared the dose-response relationships of mivacurium, pancuronium and their combination, and examined the interactions by isobolographic and fractional analyses. We studied 70 adult patients during nitrous oxide-fentanyl-propofol anaesthesia. The dose-response curves were determined by probit analysis. ⋯ When the first twitch (T1) of TOF recovered to 25%, each patient received mivacurium 46.2 micrograms kg-1. The times after administration of mivacurium until T1 25% in the mivacurium-pancuronium group were 6.4 (3.5-9.4) min and 49.8 (44.7-54.9) min, respectively (P < 0.0001). We conclude that the combination of mivacurium and pancuronium was synergistic and after pancuronium-induced neuromuscular block, mivacurium became a longer acting agent than the shorter agent.
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We have studied the pattern of blood flow and pharmacodynamic profile of mivacurium-induced block at the adductor pollicis and orbicularis oculi muscles. We studied 30 adult patients anaesthetized with fentanyl, thiopentone, nitrous oxide-isoflurane, and mivacurium 0.2 mg kg-1. Neuromuscular transmission was monitored with accelerometry (TOF Guard, Biometer, Denmark). ⋯ Thiopentone significantly increased thenar muscle blood flow from 2.9 (1.5) to 12.3 (6.8) ml 100 g-1 min-1, with a further increase to 22.7 (8.0) ml 100 g-1 min-1 after isoflurane (P < 0.001). Blood flow at the orbicularis oculi was not altered by thiopentone or isoflurane and was consistently lower than that at the adductor pollicis muscle. We conclude that the different pharmacodynamic profiles of mivacurium-induced block at the orbicularis oculi and adductor pollicis muscles were not related primarily to a difference in blood flows.
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We have studied midlatency auditory evoked potentials (MLAEP) and motor signs of wakefulness during anaesthesia with midazolam in 10 patients undergoing elective laparotomy under continuous extradural analgesia. Anaesthesia was induced with midazolam 0.3 mg kg-1 and maintained with midazolam 0.3-0.9 mg kg-1 h-1. Motor signs of wakefulness were documented as spontaneous movements and movements after simple commands (open eyes or move arms). ⋯ Latencies of the MLAEP peaks Pa, Nb and P1 increased slightly during anaesthesia. Amplitudes for Na/Pa, Pa/Nb and Nb/P1 did not change significantly. The high incidence of motor signs of wakefulness associated with preserved MLAEP indicated a high level of cortical neural activity and none of the MLAEP variables predicted movement during anaesthesia with midazolam.