BMC anesthesiology
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Varied and fragmented care plans undertaken by different practitioners currently expose surgical patients to lapses in expected care, increase the chance for operational mistakes and accidents, and often result in unnecessary care. The Perioperative Surgical Home has thus been proposed by the American Society of Anesthesiologists and other stakeholders as an innovative, patient-centered, surgical continuity of care model that incorporates shared decision making. Topics central to the debate about an anesthesiology-based Perioperative Surgical Home include: holding the gains made in anesthesia-related patient safety; impacting surgical morbidity and mortality, including failure-to-rescue; achieving healthcare outcome metrics; assimilating comparative effectiveness research into the model; establishing necessary audit and data collection; a comparison with the hospitalist model of perioperative care; the perspective of the surgeon; the benefits of the Perioperative Surgical Home to the specialty of anesthesiology; and its associated healthcare economic advantages. ⋯ Broadening the anesthesiologist's scope of practice via the Perioperative Surgical Home may promote standardization and improve clinical outcomes and decrease resource utilization by providing greater patient-centered continuity of care throughout the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative periods.
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In 1993, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) published guidelines stating that automatic perioperative suspension of Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) orders conflicts with patients' rights to self-determination. Almost 20 years later, we aimed to explore both patient and doctor views concerning perioperative DNR status. ⋯ Although many patients agree that their DNR orders should be suspended for their operation, they expect a discussion regarding the performance and nature of perioperative resuscitation. In contrast to previous studies, anesthesiologists were least likely to automatically suspend a DNR order.
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Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a supportive therapy and its success depends on optimal drug therapy along with other supportive care. Emerging evidence suggests significant interactions between the drug and the device resulting in altered pharmacokinetics (PK) of vital drugs which may be further complicated by the PK changes that occur in the context of critical illness. Such PK alterations are complex and challenging to investigate in critically ill patients on ECMO and necessitate mechanistic research. The aim of this project is to investigate each of circuit, drug and critical illness factors that affect drug PK during ECMO. ⋯ Systematic research that integrates both mechanistic and clinical research is desirable when investigating the complex area of pharmacokinetic alterations during ECMO. The above research approach will provide an advanced mechanistic understanding of PK during ECMO. The clinical study when complete will result in development robust guidelines for prescription of 18 commonly used antibiotic, sedative and analgesic drugs used in ECMO patients. This research may also pave the way for further refinements in circuitry, drug chemistry and drug prescriptions during ECMO.
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Remifentanil enhances intraoperative hemodynamic stability, suggesting that it may decrease intraoperative blood loss when included as an adjuvant to general anesthesia. This retrospective study compared intraoperative blood loss during spinal surgery in patients administered either remifentanil or fentanyl as an opioid adjuvant. ⋯ Intraoperative blood loss during spinal surgery was decreased in patients who received remifentanil as an opioid adjuvant, possibly because of lower intraoperative BP. A larger-scale prospective randomized controlled trial is warranted to confirm our results and to test whether remifentanil can decrease intraoperative blood loss during other surgical procedures.
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The role of recombinant activated protein C (aPC) during sepsis is still controversial. It showed anti-inflammatory effect and improved the microvascular perfusion in experimental models of septic shock. The present study was aimed at testing the hypothesis that recombinant aPC therapy improves the microcirculation during severe sepsis. ⋯ aPC significantly improves the microcirculation in patients with severe sepsis/septic shock.