Local and regional anesthesia
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Managing postoperative pain in patients undergoing minimally invasive pectus excavatum repair (Nuss procedure) is challenging but essential in facilitating ambulation and minimizing the length of stay. Although multiple epidural regimens with varying opioids are presently used for pain management, there is currently no clinical consensus regarding which epidural regimen provides the best analgesia outcomes with the fewest side effects. This 10-year retrospective cohort study was performed to compare the quality of analgesia and the incidence of side effects associated with the three most common epidural regimens used at a tertiary care children's hospital, in patients undergoing the Nuss procedure. ⋯ There is no significant difference in managing postoperative pain overall between the three epidural regimens employed at our center. However, in managing day-1 postoperative pain and minimizing nausea/vomiting, our study suggests that a hydromorphone-ropivacaine epidural regimen appears to have more favorable results than a fentanyl-bupivacaine regimen or a hydromorphone-bupivacaine regimen.
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Trauma is a significant health problem and a leading cause of death in all age groups. Pain related to trauma is frequently severe, but is often undertreated in the trauma population. Opioids are widely used to treat pain in injured patients but have a broad range of undesirable effects in a multitrauma patient such as neurologic and respiratory impairment and delirium. ⋯ Acute compartment syndrome is a potentially devastating sequela of soft-tissue injury that complicates high-energy injuries such as proximal tibia fractures. The use of regional anesthesia in patients at risk for compartment syndrome is controversial; although the data is sparse, there is no evidence that peripheral nerve blocks delay the diagnosis, and these techniques may in fact facilitate the recognition of pathologic breakthrough pain. The benefits of regional analgesia are likely most influential when it is initiated as early as possible, and the performance of nerve blocks both in the emergency room and in the field has been shown to provide quality pain relief with an excellent safety profile.
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Incidence of hemorrhagic complications from neuraxial blockade is unknown, but classically cited as 1 in 150,000 epidurals and 1 in 220,000 spinals. However, recent literature and epidemiologic data suggest that for certain patient populations the frequency is higher (1 in 3,000). Due to safety concerns of bleeding risk, guidelines and recommendations have been designed to reduce patient morbidity/mortality during regional anesthesia. ⋯ No laboratory model identifies patients at risk, and rarity of neuraxial hematoma defies prospective randomized study so "patient-specific" factors and "surgery-related" issues should be considered to improve patient-oriented outcomes. Details of advanced age, older females, trauma patients, spinal cord and vertebral column abnormalities, organ function compromise, presence of underlying coagulopathy, traumatic or difficult needle placement, as well as indwelling catheter(s) during anticoagulation pose risks for significant bleeding. Therefore, balancing between thromboembolism, bleeding risk, and introduction of more potent antithrombotic medications in combination with regional anesthesia has resulted in a need for more than "consensus statements" to safely manage regional interventions during anticoagulant/thromboprophylactic therapy.
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Lidocaine could provide many advantages in continuous regional anesthesia techniques, including faster onset, greater titratability, and lower cost than long-acting local anesthetics. This prospective, randomized, double-blinded, pilot study is therefore intended to compare lidocaine to ropivacaine in bilateral continuous paravertebral blocks using a multimodal approach for postoperative pain management following laparoscopic bowel surgery. ⋯ Lidocaine 0.25% and ropivacaine 0.2% provided similar analgesic profiles after elective abdominal surgeries, without any difference in terms of functional outcomes. The easier titratability of lidocaine together with its lower cost induced our clinical practice to definitely switch from ropivacaine to lidocaine for postoperative bilateral paravertebral continuous infusions.
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In the past decade ophthalmic anesthesia has witnessed a major transformation. The sun has set on the landscape of ophthalmic procedures performed under general anesthesia at in-hospital settings. In its place a new dawn has ushered in the panorama of eye surgeries conducted under regional and topical anesthesia at specialty eye care centers. ⋯ Hyaluronidase is a useful adjuvant because it promotes local anesthetic diffusion and hastens block onset time but it is allergenic. Ultrasound-guided eye blocks afford real-time visualization of needle position and local anesthetic spread. An advantage of sonic guidance is that it may eliminate the hazard of globe perforation by identifying abnormal anatomy, such as staphyloma.