British journal of anaesthesia
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Many preoperative factors can influence perioperative mortality in cardiac surgery. Because the perioperative use of beta-blocking agents may reduce perioperative cardiac complications in non-cardiac surgery, we considered the possibility that beta-blocking agents could improve survival in coronary surgery patients. ⋯ Increasing age and urgency of surgery are associated with greater mortality, whereas preoperative beta-blocking therapy is associated with less mortality. The characteristics of patients who received chronic beta-blockade did not differ significantly from those of patients who did not. The results suggest that chronic preoperative beta-blocker therapy reduces 30-day mortality in coronary surgery.
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Case Reports
Postpartum cerebral ischaemia after accidental dural puncture and epidural blood patch.
Puerperal women are reported to have a rate of cerebral infarction 13 times greater than non-pregnant females. We report a case of cerebral ischaemia in a 30-yr-old healthy parturient after epidural analgesia for labour, complicated by dural puncture treated with two epidural blood patches. ⋯ At 1-yr follow-up, the patient had homonymous hemianopsia. We discuss the possible causative mechanism of the cerebral ischaemia in relation to the dural puncture and epidural blood patch.
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Comparable minimum alveolar concentration (MAC) fractions of volatile anaesthetics produce similar thermoregulatory impairment. Nitrous oxide, however, decreases the vasoconstriction threshold less than sevoflurane or isoflurane. We tested the hypothesis that nitrous oxide also decreases shivering threshold less than isoflurane alone or in combination. ⋯ This study indicates that nitrous oxide reduces the shivering threshold less than isoflurane.
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Case Reports
Postoperative extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for severe intraoperative SIRS 10 h after multiple trauma.
A 34-yr-old male suffered multiple trauma in a road traffic accident. He required right thoracotomy and laparotomy to control exanguinating haemorrhage, and received 93 u blood and blood products. Intraoperatively, he developed severe systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) with coagulopathy and respiratory failure. ⋯ The patient was stabilized within 60 min and transferred to the intensive care unit. He was weaned off ECMO after 51 h. He had no haemorrhagic complications, spent 3 weeks in the intensive care unit, and has made a good recovery.
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Arterial oxygenation can change during one-lung ventilation for reasons that are not fully understood. ⋯ Oxygenation can improve during one-lung ventilation in some patients. This improvement is partly related to a marked increase in Pa(O(2)) during compression of the non-dependent lung.