British journal of anaesthesia
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The elderly are perceived as a high-risk group for procedural sedation. Concern exists regarding the safety of sedation of this patient group by emergency physicians, particularly when using propofol. ⋯ We observed safe sedation practice in this high-risk group of patients in this department. A sentinel adverse event rate of 2.6% including a hypoxaemia rate of 0.5%, with no adverse outcomes sets a benchmark for elderly sedation. We recommend quality pre-oxygenation, an initial propofol bolus of no more than 0.5 mg kg-1, and a robust training and governance framework.
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Case Reports
Are high-sensitivity troponins always reliable? Donor-recipient troponin transfusion in liver transplantation.
Blood troponins are used to diagnose perioperative myocardial injury and infarction. During liver transplantation, a passive donor-recipient troponin transfer with the graft may result in an increase of troponins in the transplant recipient questioning the diagnosis of myocardial injury. We present a case of liver transplantation with sudden elevation of recipient's serum troponin levels immediately after graft reperfusion and its subsequent normalization in which myocardial damage and other non-ischaemic potential causes were ruled out. Patient consent for publication was obtained prior to submission of the manuscript.
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As the intensity of nausea, a subjective symptom, is difficult to estimate in children, vomiting is used as the objective clinical endpoint in managing paediatric postoperative nausea and vomiting. The pictorial Baxter Retching Faces (BARF) scale is a validated quantitative measure of paediatric nausea, but versions in languages other than English have not been validated. ⋯ NCT02007109.
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The baroreflex regulates arterial blood pressure (BP). During periods when blood pressure changes, cerebral blood flow (CBF) is kept constant by cerebral autoregulation (CA). In patients with diabetes mellitus (DM), low baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) is associated with impaired CA. As sevoflurane-based anaesthesia obliterates BRS, we hypothesised that this could aggravate the already impaired CA in patients with DM resulting in a 'double-hit' on cerebral perfusion leading to increased fluctuations in blood pressure and cerebral perfusion. ⋯ NCT 03071432.
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Dexmedetomidine attenuates renal ischaemia and reperfusion (I/R) injury, but its mechanism of action is unclear. As sirtuin 3 (SIRT3) activation can alleviate acute kidney injury, we investigated whether dexmedetomidine acts through SIRT3 to reduce renal I/R injury. ⋯ Dexmedetomidine appears to act, at least in part, by up-regulating SIRT3 to inhibit mitochondrial damage and cell apoptosis and thereby protect against renal I/R injury.