Regional anesthesia and pain medicine
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Jul 2010
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyIntravenous lidocaine is as effective as epidural bupivacaine in reducing ileus duration, hospital stay, and pain after open colon resection: a randomized clinical trial.
Both postoperative epidural analgesia and intravenous (IV) infusion of local anesthetic have been shown to shorten ileus duration and hospital stay after colon surgery when compared with the use of systemic narcotics alone. However, they have not been compared directly with each other. ⋯ No differences were observed between groups in terms of return of bowel function, duration of hospital stay, and postoperative pain control, suggesting that IV infusion of local anesthetic may be an effective alternative to epidural therapy in patients in whom epidural anesthesia is contraindicated or not desired.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Jul 2010
ReviewUltrasound-guided interventional procedures in pain medicine: a review of anatomy, sonoanatomy, and procedures. Part II: axial structures.
There is a growing trend in using ultrasonography in pain medicine as evident by the plethora of published reports. Ultrasound(US) provides direct visualization of various soft tissues and real-time needle advancement and avoids exposing both the health care provider and the patient to the risks of radiation. ⋯ In a previous review, we discussed the challenges and limitations of US, anatomy, sonoanatomy, and techniques of interventional procedures of peripheral structures. In the present review, we discuss the anatomy, sonoanatomy, and US-guided techniques of interventional pain procedures for axial structures and review the pertinent literature.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Jul 2010
Local anesthetic sciatic nerve block and nerve fiber damage in diabetic rats.
A concern for anesthesiologists is whether local anesthetics are more toxic to peripheral nerves in diabetic patients. A previous study in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats showed that larger doses of lidocaine produce moderate nerve injury after nerve block in normal rats and worse injury in diabetic rats. However, it is not clear whether a smaller local anesthetic dose that produces negligible nerve fiber damage in normal rats will produce significant nerve damage in diabetic rats and if adding adjuvant drugs modulates this effect. ⋯ The duration of sciatic nerve block with local anesthetics is longer in diabetic compared with nondiabetic rats. A small, but statistically significant, increase in nerve damage occurred in diabetic rats after nerve block with ropivacaine alone or when duration of lidocaine block was extended with clonidine. These findings may have implications for dosing of local anesthetics in diabetic patients undergoing regional analgesia with nerve blocks.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Jul 2010
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyProtein balance in nondiabetic versus diabetic patients undergoing colon surgery: effect of epidural analgesia and amino acids.
Surgical injury provokes a stress response that is thought to be pronounced in patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2) leading to intensified catabolism. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of perioperative epidural analgesia (EDA) versus patient controlled analgesia (PCA) and amino acid infusion on postoperative metabolism in patients with and without DM2. ⋯ A short-term infusion of amino acids reduced protein breakdown, increased protein synthesis, and rendered protein balance positive. This anabolic effect was pronounced in diabetic patients with EDA compared with nondiabetic patients or PCA, respectively, and prevented an undesirable hyperglycemia.