Minerva anestesiologica
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Minerva anestesiologica · Jun 1997
Review[Perioperative thermal homeostasis. A duty of the anesthesiologist].
Anaesthesia, surgical procedures and operating room temperature can deeply alter the human thermoregulatory system. Unexpected and sometimes serious perioperative complications can occur. Many studies have been carried out in order to describe and evaluate the detrimental effects produced by different anaesthesia procedures (whether by general, regional or integrated anaesthesia) on thermic homeostasis. ⋯ Italian anaesthetists have still a poor consideration about intraoperative body temperature monitoring and patients' warming as basic important skills for a better anaesthesiologic patients management. According with the literature, we do believe that this is not a right opinion. The purpose of the present paper would be to point out the most important knowledges concerning thermic homeostasis management, in order to increase anaesthesiologist's awareness in this essential field of patients perioperative care.
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Minerva anestesiologica · Nov 1996
Review[Balanced spinal analgesia in the treatment of oncologic pain. Review of the literature].
Certain types of cancer pain fail to respond well either to systemic drug therapy or to spinal opioids because of the occurrence of intolerable adverse effects. In addition to spinal opioids other drugs may produce an antinociceptive effect when administered by the spinal route, such as local anesthetics, NSAID, alpha 2-agonists, calcium-channel blockers, NMDA antagonists, cholinergic drugs, peptides such as somatostatin, octreotide or calcitonin, adenosine agonists, benzodiazepines, neurokinin and cholecystokinin antagonists, nitric oxide synthase inhibitors, corticosteroids, and enkephalinase inhibitors. All these drugs may be administered in combination between them, realising the so called balanced spinal analgesia. ⋯ Analysis of the presented data shows that the spinal synergism between opioids-local anesthetics and opioids-alpha 2-agonists can be useful in the treatment of opioid refractory cancer pain. Furthermore, the use of cholinergic drugs combined with opioids and alpha 2-agonists may be promising. Finally, even if the synergism between NSAID or NMDA antagonists with opioids or alpha 2-agonists have been proved, at the moment their use in man by the spinal route is not advisable because of the absence of adequate studies on their neurotoxicity and adverse effects.
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Minerva anestesiologica · Mar 1996
Review[Experience of an intermediate respiratory intensive therapy in the treatment of prolonged weaning from mechanical ventilation].
109 patients who suffered from an episode of acute respiratory failure, necessitated mechanical ventilation (MV) in a general Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and admitted to our Respiratory Intermediate Intensive Unit (RIIU), were retrospectively evaluated for outcome and weaning success. The patients, 69 +/- 9 years old, presented the following diseases: COLD (70%), cardiovascular (15%) and neuromuscular (15%). A relapse of underlying disease (62%), pneumonia (20%), thoraco-muscular pump failure (15%) and pulmonary embolism (3%) were the relapsing causes needing the ICU admission. ⋯ Maximal inspiratory pressure (31 +/- 7 cmH2O) and respiratory rate/tidal volume (83 +/- 34) were measured within 48 hours after RIIU admission. 82 subjects (75%) were weaned after 6 +/- 4 days of MV using in 87% of patients pressure support technique with spontaneous breathing cycles with oxygen supplementation. 8 patients on 109 (7%) died; 20 patients on 109 (18%) were discharged after 40 +/- 9 days of stay in RIIU necessitating home MV more than 18 hours/day by means of a tracheostomy. All patients stay in RIIU for 17 +/- 7 days with a mean cost per die of 750 thousands lire. Our data suggest that a RIIU institution for prolonged weaning in chronic diseases may be a useful solution to decrease superfluous stays in ICU decreasing costs without ba worsening in quality of care.