Revista española de anestesiología y reanimación
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Rev Esp Anestesiol Reanim · Mar 2002
Review[Applications of informatics in anesthesiology: anesthesia graphics].
Computerization has brought radical changes to anesthesiology. Quality of care, management, cost control, training, research, safety and privacy have all improved. ⋯ The computer graphic display of anesthesia is more precise, legible, complete and reliable (during critical events, in substitutions of anesthesiologists or for research) than the traditional graph. One of the greatest problems of computer graphing today--besides start-up costs--is that of inserting comments on monitoring artifacts, given that the graph is a legally valid medical document.
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Rev Esp Anestesiol Reanim · Mar 2002
Biography Historical Article[The creation of the first anesthesiology service in Spain (Hospital de la Santa Cruz y San Pablo, Barcelona 1941)].
On the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the first Spanish anesthesia department, we review factors that led to its creation and its early development. Hospital de la Santa Cruz y San Pablo in Barcelona was the place where the service was established for several reasons. The first was the growing need for anesthesia to be administered by specialized physicians able to handle problems developing during and after surgery. ⋯ Juan Soler Juliá, who perceived the need, alongside the only physician in Spain who was completely dedicated to anesthesiology, Dr. José Miguel Martínez. Finally, the fact that professional anesthesiology allowed a physician to earn a decent income triggered interest in the specialty among physicians.
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Rev Esp Anestesiol Reanim · Mar 2002
[Control of the endotracheal cuff balloon pressure as a method of preventing laryngotracheal lesions in critically ill intubated patients].
To study the development of tracheal stenosis after endotracheal intubation, percutaneous tracheotomy or both; to assess risk factors for tracheal stenosis and the relation of risk to endotracheal cuff pressure. ⋯ Monitoring cuff pressure three times per day seems to contribute to preventing ischemic lesions and tracheal stenosis.
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Rev Esp Anestesiol Reanim · Mar 2002
Case Reports[Puerperal cardiomyopathy and pulmonary edema after cesarean section].
A 26-year-old woman in the thirty-second week of her fifth pregnancy was admitted with diffuse sudden-onset abdominal pain. Examination revealed cervical dilation to 8 cm, a ruptured uterine cerclage and transverse presentation of the fetus, indicating a need for emergency cesarean section, which was performed under uneventful spinal anesthesia. Three days after surgery the patient presented signs consistent with acute pulmonary edema coinciding with blood transfusion. ⋯ The discharge echocardiogram showed a left ventricle of normal size and thickness, and the ejection fraction was 55%. Peripartum myocardiopathy is a type of heart failure that develops during the third trimester or during the first six months after delivery, in the absence of signs of ventricular dysfunction or previous heart disease. Based on clinical presentation and echocardiographic findings, we believe that peripartum myocardiopathy was the cause of acute pulmonary edema in this patient.