Best practice & research. Clinical anaesthesiology
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Best Pract Res Clin Anaesthesiol · Sep 2019
ReviewPerioperative use of opioids: Current controversies and concerns.
In the midst of an epidemic of opioid abuse and overdose-related morbidity and mortality, the use of opioids remains the most common means of providing analgesia in the perioperative period. In this article, we review the risks and benefits of opioid use in preoperative, intraoperative and post-operative phases of care. Furthermore, we describe the role that surgeons and anaesthesiologists can play in reducing perioperative opioid use and mitigate their adverse effects, from both an individual and a population health perspective.
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Best Pract Res Clin Anaesthesiol · Sep 2019
ReviewPeripheral nerve blocks for postoperative analgesia: From traditional unencapsulated local anesthetic to liposomes, cryoneurolysis and peripheral nerve stimulation.
Peripheral nerve blocks (PNBs) using local anesthetics either via single injection or continuous perineural catheter have been the mainstay for regional anesthesia and are a vital component of postoperative multimodal opioid-sparing pain management. There are some limitations to PNBs, however, mainly its limited duration of action, but also risk of catheter-associated infection and dislodgements. Furthermore, local anesthetic-based blocks can induce sensory deficits and motor weakness, possibly increasing the risk of falling and/or decreasing the ability to participate in postoperative rehabilitation. In this review, we first discuss various local anesthetic-based PNB techniques for major surgery and then review newer modalities, including liposome bupivacaine, cryoanalgesia, and peripheral nerve stimulation; all of which may offer advantages over single and continuous local anesthetic-based PNBs.
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As the operating room and intensive care settings become increasingly complex, the required vigilance practitioners must dedicate to a wide array of clinical systems has increased concordantly. The resulting shortage of available attention to these various clinical tasks creates a vacuum for the introduction of systems that can administer well-established goal-directed therapies without significant provider feedback. ⋯ Within this field, the largest focus has been on goal-directed fluid therapy as systems automating vasopressor administration have only recently become viable options. Our goal in this review article is to summarize the validity of the relevant goal-directed hemodynamic systems and explore the expanding role of automation within these systems.
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Best Pract Res Clin Anaesthesiol · Jun 2019
ReviewWhat the anaesthesiologist needs to know about heart-lung interactions.
The impact of positive pressure ventilation extends the effect on lungs and gas exchange because the altered intra-thoracic pressure conditions influence determinants of cardiovascular function. These mechanisms are called heart-lung interactions, which conceptually can be divided into two components (1) The effect of positive airway pressure on the cardiovascular system, which may be more or less pronounced under various pathologic cardiac conditions, and (2) The effect of cyclic airway pressure swing on the cardiovascular system, which can be useful in the interpretation of the individual patient's current haemodynamic state. It is imperative for the anaesthesiologist to understand the fundamental mechanisms of heart-lung interactions, as they are a foundation for the understanding of optimal, personalised cardiovascular treatment of patients undergoing surgery in general anaesthesia. The aim of this review is thus to describe what the anaesthesiologist needs to know about heart-lung interactions.