Articles: surgery.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical Trial
Analgesic combinations with orphenadrine in oral post-surgical pain.
Two hundred male and female patients underwent a variety of oral surgical procedures and were treated afterwards in four test groups. They took a combination of orphenadrine (25 mg) and acetaminophen (325 mg), either drug alone, or placebo. A double-blind study design was used. ⋯ Each active drug, in turn, was also significantly better throughout than placebo for pain relief. Sub-groups in each treatment regimen required additional pain relief prior to six hours, with significantly more placebo than orphenadrine-acetaminophen patients needing remedication. Side-effect incidence was very low and randomly distributed among the four groups.
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A modified critical-incident analysis technique was used in a retrospective examination of the characteristics of human error and equipment failure in anesthetic practice. The objective was to uncover patterns of frequently occurring incidents that are in need of careful prospective investigation. Forty-seven interviews were conducted with staff and resident anesthesiologists at one urban teaching institution, and descriptions of 359 preventable incidents were obtained. ⋯ Overt equipment failures constituted only 14 per cent of the total number of preventable incidents, but equipment design was indictable in many categories of human error, as were inadequate experience and insufficient familiarity with equipment or with the specific surgical procedure. Other factors frequently associated with incidents were inadequate communication among personnel, haste or lack of precaution, and distraction. Results from multi-hospital studies based on the methodology developed could be used for more objective determination of priorities and planning of specific investments for decreasing the risk associated with anesthesia.
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Obstetrics and gynecology · Oct 1978
World Health Organization studies of prostaglandins versus saline as abortifacients. A reappraisal.
The World Health Organization (WHO) Task Force on the Use of Prostaglandins for the Regulation of Fertility has sponsored a series of randomized clinical trials and case-series investigations to assess the effectiveness and safety of prostaglandins as abortifacients. Our reanalysis of the WHO studies found the prostaglandins to be faster and more hazardour than hypertonic saline as intraamniotic abortifacients. ⋯ For gestations of greater than or equal to 17 weeks, the occurrence of live births in prostaglandin-induced abortions has produced serious legal and ethical problems in the United States. Until the effectiveness and safety of other prostaglandins regimen approach that of D&E, we feel that D&E should be the index of comparison against which newer methods of inducing abortion are tested.