Latest Articles
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Jan 2025
Observational StudyPermutation Entropy Does Not Track the Electroencephalogram-Related Manifestations of Paradoxical Excitation During Propofol-Induced Loss of Responsiveness: Results From a Prospective Observational Cohort Study.
During the anesthetic-induced loss of responsiveness (LOR), a "paradoxical excitation" with activation of β-frequencies in the electroencephalogram (EEG) can be observed. Thus, spectral parameters-as widely used in commercial anesthesia monitoring devices-may mistakenly indicate that patients are awake when they are actually losing responsiveness. Nonlinear time-domain parameters such as permutation entropy (PeEn) may analyze additional EEG information and appropriately reflect the change in cognitive state during the transition. Determining which parameters correctly track the level of anesthesia is essential for designing monitoring algorithms but may also give valuable insight regarding the signal characteristics during state transitions. ⋯ PeEn and beta ratio seem suitable parameters to monitor the state transition during anesthesia induction. The decreasing PeEn values suggest a reduction of signal complexity and information content, which may very well describe the clinical situation at LOR. The beta ratio mainly focuses on the loss of power in the gamma-band. PeEn, in particular, may present a single parameter capable of tracking the LOR transition without being affected by paradoxical excitation.
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Palliative medicine · Jan 2025
Feasibility of prospective error reporting in home palliative care: A mixed methods study.
Prospectively tracking errors can improve patient safety but little is known about how to successfully implement error reporting in a home-based palliative care context. ⋯ Physicians are amenable to error reporting activities so long as data is used to improve patient safety. The collaborative nature of care in a home-based palliative care context may present unique challenges to translating error reporting to improved patient safety.
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Acute kidney injury (AKI) is associated with increased mortality. AKI-related mortality trends by U.S. urban and rural counties were assessed. ⋯ Multidisciplinary efforts are needed to increase AKI awareness and implement strategies to reduce AKI-related mortality in rural and high-risk populations.
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Numerous, sometimes conflicting, changes in brain functional connectivity have been associated with the transition from wakefulness to unresponsiveness at induction of general anesthesia. However, relatively few studies have looked at the detailed time evolution of the transition, for different electroencephalogram (EEG) frequency bands, and in the clinical scenario of surgical patients undergoing general anesthesia. ⋯ Propofol-induced loss of consciousness in surgical patients is associated with a global breakdown in low-frequency directed functional connectivity, coupled with a high-frequency increase between closely located brain regions. At loss of consciousness, Granger causality shows more pronounced changes than coherence.