Minerva anestesiologica
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Minerva anestesiologica · Jul 2012
Randomized Controlled TrialS+ -ketamine for control of perioperative pain and prevention of post thoracotomy pain syndrome: a randomized, double-blind study.
Post-thoracotomy pain syndrome (PTPS) often complicates the long term outcome of patients; its appearance has been related to perioperative acute pain. The main goal of this study was to evaluate a possible role of S(+)-ketamine in the prevention of PTPS up to 6 months and secondarily its efficacy in the control of perioperative pain when added to thoracic epidural analgesia (TEA) and adjuvants. ⋯ S(+)-ketamine had no effects in respect to placebo in the prevention of PTPS at 3 and 6 months but had a significant role in maintaining a NRS≤3 in the early postoperative period. A tight control of perioperative pain seems to be associated with a low incidence of moderate and severe PTPS.
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Minerva anestesiologica · Jul 2012
Randomized Controlled TrialPositive end-expiratory pressure following coronary artery bypass grafting.
Cardiac surgery-related pulmonary complications include alterations in lung mechanics and anomalies in gas exchange. Higher levels of positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) have been suggested to benefit cardiac surgical patients. We compared respiratory compliance, arterial oxygenation and time till tracheal extubation in 2 cohorts of patients weaned from mechanical ventilation with different levels of PEEP after elective and uncomplicated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). We hypothesized that higher PEEP levels improve pulmonary compliance and gas exchange in the first hours of weaning from mechanical ventilation, but not to shorten time till tracheal extubation. ⋯ Use of higher PEEP levels after elective uncomplicated CABG improves pulmonary compliance and oxygenation but seems to be associated with a delay in tracheal extubation.
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Minerva anestesiologica · Jul 2012
Mortality and morbidity of nosocomial respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection in ventilated children--a ten year perspective.
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is one of the most common pathogens involved in nosocomial infection in children. The aim of the study was to determine the impact of nosocomial RSV infection on mortality and pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) morbidity of ventilated children. ⋯ Nosocomial RSV infection was independently associated with increased mortality and was the strongest predictor of duration of ventilation and length of stay in children on PICU. Decreasing nosocomial RSV infection would reduce deaths in ventilated children.
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Postoperative care of major neurosurgical procedures is aimed at the prevention, detection and treatment of secondary brain injury. This consists of a series of pathological events (i.e. brain edema and intracranial hypertension, cerebral hypoxia/ischemia, brain energy dysfunction, non-convulsive seizures) that occur early after the initial insult and surgical intervention and may add further burden to primary brain injury and thus impact functional recovery. Management of secondary brain injury requires specialized neuroscience intensive care units (ICU) and continuous advanced monitoring of brain physiology. ⋯ Additional invasive (i.e. brain tissue PO2, cerebral microdialysis, regional cerebral blood flow) and non-invasive (i.e. transcranial doppler, near-infrared spectroscopy, EEG) brain monitoring devices might complement ICP monitoring and help clinicians to target therapeutic interventions (e.g. management of cerebral perfusion pressure, blood transfusion, glucose control) to patient-specific pathophysiology. Several independent studies demonstrate such multimodal approach may optimize patient care after major neurosurgical procedures. The aim of this review is to evaluate some of the available monitoring systems and summarize recent important data showing the clinical utility of multimodal neuromonitoring for the management of main acute neurosurgical conditions, including traumatic brain injury, subarachnoid hemorrhage and stroke.