Best practice & research. Clinical anaesthesiology
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Perioperative hypothermia is a common and serious complication of anesthesia and surgery. Core body temperature, which is normally regulated to within a few tenths of a degree centigrade, can fall by as much as 6 degrees C during anesthesia. The combination of anesthetic-induced impairment of thermoregulatory control and exposure to a cool operating room environment causes most surgical patients to become hypothermic. ⋯ There is no widely accepted definition for the term 'mild hypothermia'. Furthermore, the term is not used consistently within the literature. For the purpose of this review, mild hypothermia refers to core temperatures between 34 and 36 degrees C.
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With recent advances in surgical and anaesthetic management, clinical medicine has responded to societal expectations and the number of operations in patients with a high-risk of perioperative liver failure has increased over the last decades. This review will outline important pathophysiological alterations common in patients with pre-existing liver impairment and thus highlight the anaesthetic challenge to minimise perioperative liver insults. It will focus on the intraoperative balancing act to reduce blood loss while maintaining adequate liver perfusion, the various anaesthetic agents used and their specific effects on hepatic function, perfusion and toxicity. Furthermore, it will discuss advances in pharmacological and ischaemic preconditioning and summarise the results of recent clinical trials.
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Fear of the side effects of analgesic drugs frequently leads to the under-treatment of post-craniotomy pain. Nevertheless, this pain continues to be commonly observed, is frequently severe, and, if unrelieved, may cause distress for the neurosurgical patient and serious complications for the operative brain. We review recent evidence-based data on pain therapy after intracranial surgery. ⋯ If titrated properly, opioids do not increase serious side effects as compared with codeine. The non-narcotics ketoprofen, tramadol, and paracetamol may be useful as supplemental, opioid-sparing drugs. There is a need for larger trials to delineate safety and efficacy of analgesic therapies with a focus on short- and long-term outcomes.
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Best Pract Res Clin Anaesthesiol · Dec 2007
ReviewPrevention and control of postoperative nausea and vomiting in post-craniotomy patients.
Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) are the most frequent side-effects in the postoperative period, impairing subjective well-being and having economic impact due to delayed discharge. However, emetic symptoms can also cause major medical complications, and post-craniotomy patients may be at an increased risk. A review and critical appraisal of the existing literature on PONV in post-craniotomy patients, and a comparison of these findings with the current knowledge on PONV in the general surgical population, leads to the following conclusions: (1) Despite the lack of a documented case of harm caused by retching or vomiting in a post-craniotomy patient, the potential risk caused by arterial hypertension and high intra-abdominal/intra-thoracic pressure leading to high intracranial pressure, forces to avoid PONV in these patients. (2) There is unclarity about a specifically increased (or decreased) risk for PONV in post-craniotomy patients compared with other surgical procedures. (3) The decision whether or not to administer an antiemetic should not be based primarily on risk scores for PONV but on the likelihood for potential catastrophic consequences of PONV. ⋯ This also impacts upon the meaning of meta-analyses performed with trials that showed marked heterogeneity and inconclusive results. (5) No studies on the treatment of established PONV are available. This highlights the need to transfer knowledge about PONV treatment from other surgical procedures. (6) Despite the possibility that PONV in post-craniotomy patients can be triggered by specific conditions (e.g. surgery near the area postrema at the floor of the fourth ventricle with the vomiting centre located nearby), recommendations based on trials in post-craniotomy patients may be flawed. Thus, general knowledge on prevention and treatment of PONV must adopted for craniotomy settings.