Annales chirurgiae et gynaecologiae
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Prophylaxis against pulmonary complications in patients undergoing gall-bladder surgery. A comparison between early mobilization, physiotherapy with and without bronchodilatation.
A random comparison of early mobilization and chest physiotherapy (mainly breathing exercises) with or without bronchodilatating inhalations for prophylaxis against pulmonary complications in patients undergoing elective gall-bladder surgery is presented. The operation was performed with a subcostal incision and peroperatively, intercostal nerve block was administered. ⋯ Thus early mobilization was as effective in our study as the other prophylactic treatments. In patients without pulmonary disease perhaps early mobilization and efficient analgesia after surgery is as effective as more resource demanding physiotherapy for prophylaxis against postoperative pulmonary complications.
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The methods of providing postoperative analgesia by regional anaesthetic techniques with local anaesthetics are outlined. For the use of epidural analgesia, the techniques of inserting an epidural catheter at any level of the spine must be familiar. The block should be regional, restricted to the area of pain and effective at all times after its institution with a minimum of side effects. ⋯ A dose regimen for thoracic, abdominal, perineal and lower extremity pain is presented. Side effects of the epidural technique and ways to treat and avoid them are discussed. The intercostal nerve block for post-thoracotomy and upper abdominal pain is described with special reference to the recent development of the continuous technique with bupivacaine and the cryoanalgesia technique.
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Narcotics have been shown to act selectively upon nociceptive synaptic junctions in laminae 1 and 2 of the dorsal horn of the spinal cord. Subarachnoid or epidural injection of narcotics can produce selective segmental analgesia of great intensity and prolonged duration that is free of motor or sympathetic blockade. However, poorly lipid-soluble drugs, such as morphine, that tend to linger in the water phase of the CSF may spread rostrally to involve opiate receptors in brain stem nuclei. ⋯ Obstetrical pain is less amenable to this approach. Effective and safe management of acute pain requires that the patients be under adequate surveillance to avoid the danger of insidious respiratory depression. Chronic malignant pain is well controlled by relatively small doses of narcotic, and these patients can be managed at home on a long-term basis.
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The clinically useful local anesthetic agents can be divided chemically into the amino-esters, e.g., procaine, chloroprocaine and tetracaine, and the amino-amides, e.g., lidocaine, mepivacaine, prilocaine, bupivacaine and etidocaine. Pharmacologically, these agents can be categorized as agents of low potency and short duration of action, e.g., procaine and chloroprocaine; agents of intermediate potency and duration of action, e.g., lidocaine, mepivacaine and prilocaine; and agents of high potency and long duration, e.g., tetracaine, bupivacaine and etidocaine. The blood level of local anesthetics is determined by the rate of uptake, tissue redistribution, metabolism and excretion. ⋯ Among the ester agents chloroprocaine is cleared most rapidly due to its fast rate of hydrolysis. Within the amide series, prilocaine is cleared most rapidly due to its fast rate of tissue redistribution and its rapid hepatic metabolism. Bupivacaine is cleared most slowly due primarily to its decreased rate of hepatic degradation.
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Case Reports Comparative Study
Anaesthesia for patients with multiple sclerosis.
The types of anaesthesia administered to 56 multiple sclerosis patients undergoing surgery in the different departments of the Helsinki University Central Hospital (HUCH) during a ten year period from 1973 to 1982 were studied. The perioperative and postoperative events were analyzed in relation to the method of anaesthesia. ⋯ In four patients who were given regional anaesthesia (2 spinal, 3 epidural) marked by hypotension, quite resistant to intravenous vasopressor treatment was observed. No deterioration of the multiple sclerosis was noted postoperatively which could be related to the anaesthesia.