Lijec̆nic̆ki vjesnik
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The open access (OA) or the idea of a free access to scholarly literature published in electronic form has been already well established in the field of medicine. Medline has already been free for a decade, PubMed Central has been growing steadily. ⋯ The aim of this article is to give an overview of the main open access initiatives and resources in biomedicine (PubMed, PubMed Central, BioMed Central, PLoS). The OA pros and cons are briefly discussed emphasizing the benefits of OA to medical research and practice.
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Even though the effects of surgery and anesthesia on sleep have not been completely defined yet, it is an irrefutable fact that the patients with sleep apnea could experience significant perioperative complications, in terms of common difficult airway problems, as well as prolonged emergence from anesthesia. Besides, there are strong evidences of correlation between sleep apnea and hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases. Preoperative questions about sleep, possible snoring, or excessive daytime sleepiness should become a routine part of preanesthesia evaluation, together with airway examination and thorough pulmonary and cardiovacular examination. ⋯ The possible problems may arise during tracheal intubation, extubation, or with postoperative analgesia, since opioids increase the incidence of pharyngeal collapse. Whenever possible, regional anesthesia techniques should be used. On the other hand, by documenting every difficult airway management, difficult intubation or prolonged recovery, the anesthesiologists are in good position to effectively screen for OSA in population.
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Informed consent is a legal procedure when including a person in the treatment, diagnostics or research which includes information, voluntarism and capacity to consent of the participant. Capacity to consent is related to decision-making process and could be influenced by various factors. Assessment of capacity to consent is still clinical, because there are no widely accepted standards and assessment instruments. ⋯ Ethical considerations in the research with participants not able to consent are related to benefit vs. non-benefit studies and risk assessment. Finding of the better methods for capacity assessment and capacity enhancement could improve selection of the research participants. Legal recommendations, including international declarations and conventions, as well as the related Croatian laws are important mechanisms for safeguards of the persons with mental illness in biomedical research.
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Lijec̆nic̆ki vjesnik · Aug 2007
[Fast track surgery--enhanced multimodal rehabilitation after surgery].
Despite constant improvements in surgical technique and perioperative care which led to significant reductions in mortality and morbidity after general surgery, complication rates after major abdominal surgery still reach 15-40%. The main cause of postoperative complications (not linked to surgical technique itself) is the perioperative stress reaction potentiated by pain, inadequate perioperative fluid management, immobilisation and hypothermia. Multimodal rehabilitation of surgical patients represents the practical application of advances in surgery, anaesthesiology and postoperative rehabilitation with the aim of reducing perioperative stressors and facilitating an early return of the patient to his/her preoperative functional status. Besides discussing various aspects of multimodal rehabilitation, the authors present their own first experiences with its introduction into everyday clinical practice.
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Lijec̆nic̆ki vjesnik · Jun 2007
Review[Cervicogenic headache: etiopathogenesis, characteristics, diagnosis, differential diagnosis and therapy].
The term "cervicogenic headache" (CH) implies a chronic hemicranial pain syndrome caused by upper cervical spine disorders. According to the clinical researches, in 15-20% of the patients with chronic unilateral headache, it is the case of the headache of cervical origin. The sources of the referred pain manifested as CH are the disorders of anatomical structures innervated by the first three cervical spinal nerves and/or direct irritation/lesion of these nerves (spinal nerves C1-C3, intervertebral/i.v. joints C0-C3, i.v. disc C2-C3 muscles, ligaments, bony structures, dura mater, vertebral arteries). ⋯ It seems that the best results are achieved by a combination of manual therapy, physical therapy and kinezitherapy. Although the CH has been included into International headache classification, this hemicranial pain syndrome has still been unknown to a wider circle of medical practicioners. That is why the purpose of this article is to describe etiopathogenesis, characteristics, diagnosis, differential diagnosis and therapy of CH.