British journal of anaesthesia
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Effect of transauricular nerve stimulation on perioperative pain: a single-blind, analyser-masked, randomised controlled trial.
Activation of central autonomic pathways, including those regulating the arterial baroreflex, might reduce acute pain. We tested the hypothesis that transcutaneous auricular nerve stimulation (TAN) reduces pain after orthopaedic trauma surgery through autonomic modulation. ⋯ Bilateral TAN reduces perioperative pain through autonomic modulation. These proof-of-concept data support a non-pharmacological, generalisable approach to improve perioperative analgesia.
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Editorial Comment Meta Analysis
Importance of sequential methods in meta-analysis: implications for postoperative mortality, delirium, and stroke management.
Trial sequential analysis is an adaptation of frequentist sequential methods that can be used to improve inferences from meta-analysis. Trial sequential analysis can help preserve type I and type II error rates at desired levels for analyses conducted before the required information size. Through three case studies recently published in the British Journal of Anaesthesia, we show how trial sequential analysis can inform the interpretation of meta-analyses. Limitations of trial sequential analysis, which also include those of the meta-analysis to which it is applied, must be carefully considered alongside its benefits.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Effect of a repeated verbal reminder of orientation on emergence agitation after general anaesthesia for minimally invasive abdominal surgery: a randomised controlled trial.
An orientation strategy providing repeated verbal reminders of time, place, and person has been widely used for the non-pharmacological management of delirium. We hypothesised that using this strategy could reduce emergence agitation and improve recovery profiles. ⋯ NCT05105178.
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We determined the first prescribed opioid and the prescribers of opioids after knee and hip arthroplasty (KA/HA) between 2013 and 2018 in the Netherlands. We also evaluated whether the first prescribed opioid dose was associated with the total dispensed dose and long-term opioid use in the first postoperative year. ⋯ Oxycodone increased as first out-of-hospital prescription between 2013 and 2018. The dose of the first prescribed opioid was associated with the total dose and a small increased risk of prolonged use. First prescriptions were mostly written by orthopaedic surgeons and consecutive prescriptions by general practitioners.
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Reproducibility of research is poor; this may be because many articles report statistically significant findings that are false positives. Two potential solutions are to lower the P-value for statistical significance testing from 0.05 to 0.005 and to report the minimum false-positive risk (minFPR). This study determined these metrics for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in general anaesthesiology journals. ⋯ These proposed metrics aimed at mitigating reproducibility concerns would call a significant portion of the anaesthesiology literature into question. We found a minFPR of 22% and determined that 42% of primary outcomes would not maintain statistical significance if the P-value threshold changed from 0.05 to 0.005. These findings could partially explain the lack of reproducibility of research findings.