Drugs
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Modern heart surgery began with operative intervention for patent ductus arteriosus in 1938. Half a century later, ligation and division of patent ductus arteriosus in an infant or child remains a simple and safe surgical procedure for a lesion identified relatively easily. In the intervening years, paediatric cardiologists and surgeons have also directed their attention to the management of more complex congenital cardiac defects. ⋯ Interest has focused on: (a) surgical and pharmacological management of the premature infant with a large ductal left-to-right shunt in the context of respiratory distress syndrome; (b) preservation of patency in ductal-dependent congenital heart disease; and (c) ductal right-to-left shunting in persistence of the fetal circulation (PFC) syndrome or other diseases associated with increased pulmonary vascular resistance. This review examines the above conditions and reviews the progress and current status of drug therapy in the treatment of these disorders. Closure of the ductus arteriosus with cyclo-oxygenase inhibition as well as re-opening and maintaining patency of the ductus arteriosus with prostaglandin therapy is discussed.
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The treatment of pain in the acute phase of a suspected acute myocardial infarction is often insufficient and has remained unchanged during recent years. The introduction of substances with a potential to limit the infarct size, such as thrombolysis and beta-blockade, have, however, decreased the requirement for narcotic analgesics (which are still the drugs of choice in many hospitals). Knowledge is still lacking regarding the duration of pain relief, the time between drug administration and pain relief, and optimal doses for various analgesics. Future research should aim at the development of drugs with a more rapid onset of action, less side effects and more complete analgesia.
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Review Clinical Trial
Enalapril. An update of its pharmacological properties and therapeutic use in congestive heart failure.
Enalapril provides significant haemodynamic, symptomatic and clinical improvement when added to maintenance therapy with digitalis and diuretics in patients with congestive heart failure [NYHA (New York Heart Association) classes II to IV]. These effects are not attenuated during long term therapy. ⋯ Thus, ACE inhibitors such as enalapril offer a significant advance in the treatment of congestive heart failure. Because these drugs improve symptoms in patients with classes II to IV failure, and reduce mortality in patients with severe heart failure, they should be considered as first choice adjuvant therapy when a vasodilator is needed in addition to conventional treatment with digitalis and diuretics.
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Sufentanil, an opioid analgesic, is an analogue of fentanyl, and has been used for the induction and maintenance of anaesthesia, and for postsurgical analgesia. It has shorter distribution and elimination half-lives, and is a more potent analgesic than fentanyl. In clinical practice, however, intravenously administered sufentanil produces essentially equivalent anaesthesia to fentanyl and is a better anaesthetic than morphine or pethidine (meperidine) for major surgery. ⋯ Epidural sufentanil produces a more rapid onset and better initial quality of analgesia than morphine, buprenorphine or hydromorphine when administered postoperatively, but the duration of analgesia is shorter. Thus, sufentanil's primary place in therapy at this time would appear to be as high dose anaesthesia for major surgery such as cardiac surgery, and as low dose supplement to balanced anaesthesia in general surgery. In addition, low doses administered epidurally seem to have a potential role for analgesia during labour or after surgery although further studies are required to clarify this situation.