Regional anesthesia and pain medicine
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Sep 2019
The effect of anesthetic technique on Mortality and major morbidity after hip fracture surgery: a retrospective, propensity-score matched-pairs cohort study.
Spinal anesthesia (SA) has physiological benefits over general anesthesia (GA), but there is insufficient evidence regarding a mortality benefit. We performed a retrospective propensity score-matched cohort study to evaluate the impact of anesthetic technique on mortality and major morbidity in patients undergoing hip fracture surgery. ⋯ This propensity-score matched-pairs cohort study suggests that SA is weakly associated with a lower 90-day mortality following hip fracture surgery. SA was also associated with improved morbidity evidenced by a lower rate of PE and major blood loss and a shorter hospital length of stay. Given the retrospective nature of the study, these results are not proof of causality.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Aug 2019
Usefulness of high-resolution ultrasound for small nerve blocks: visualization of intercostobrachial and medial brachial cutaneous nerves in the axillary area.
High-resolution ultrasound (HRU) allows one to identify small nerves, but in the clinical setting, intercostobrachial nerve (ICBN) and medial brachial cutaneous nerve (MBCN) are not identified with conventional portable ultrasound (CPU) devices. The aim of this study is to identify both nerves and describe their relation with specific anatomical structures which could be easily identified with the ultrasound devices available in the clinical setting. ⋯ HRU is a useful tool to identify ICBN and MBCN nerves, and to describe structures which can be easily identified with CPU use in the clinical setting.