Anaesthesia, critical care & pain medicine
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Anaesth Crit Care Pain Med · Oct 2019
ReviewPosition of the French Working Group on Perioperative Haemostasis (GIHP) on viscoelastic tests: What role for which indication in bleeding situations?
Viscoelastic tests (VETs), thromboelastography (TEG®) and thromboelastometry (ROTEM®) are global tests of coagulation performed on whole blood. They evaluate the mechanical strength of a clot as it builds and develops after coagulation itself. The time required to obtain haemostasis results remains a major problem for clinicians dealing with bleeding, although some teams have developed a rapid laboratory response strategy. Indeed, the value of rapid point-of-care diagnostic devices such as VETs has increased over the years. However, VETs are not standardised and there are few recommendations from the learned societies regarding their use. In 2014, the recommendations of the International Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) only concerned haemophilia. The French Working Group on Perioperative haemostasis (GIHP) therefore proposes to summarise knowledge on the clinical use of these techniques in the setting of emergency and perioperative medicine. ⋯ VETs must be included in algorithms. In consultation with the biology laboratory, these devices should be situated according to the way each centre functions.
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Anaesth Crit Care Pain Med · Oct 2019
Observational StudyEffect of opioid-free anaesthesia on postoperative epidural ropivacaine requirement after thoracic surgery: A retrospective unmatched case-control study.
Patients undergoing thoracic surgery are at risk of severe postoperative pain. Post-thoracotomy pain relief is usually provided with thoracic epidural analgesia (TEA). Intraoperative use of opioids may result in hyperalgesia and increase analgesics consumption. We investigated the effect of opioid-free anaesthesia (OFA) on epidural ropivacaine requirement after thoracotomy. ⋯ OFA might reduce ropivacaine consumption, early postoperative pain scores and requirement for morphine titration after thoracotomy.