Articles: outcome.
-
The aim of this study was to identify, in (pre-) clinically obtained data, parameters predicting the outcome of patients with multiple trauma and severe head injury. Fifty-eight patients aged 27±10 years were investigated an average of 5.8 years after the accident. The Hanover Polytrauma Score was 34±11 points, the initially assessed Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) was 6.2±3.2 points; and the duration of coma was 15.4±14.4 days. ⋯ Some 42% of all patients had taken up their former profession, 5% were still in training or at college, 32% were retrained to other professions, 16% were unemployed and 5% were completely retired on pension. Age, injury severity, GCS, duration of coma and duration of weaning were suitable predictors in correlation- and regression analysis. The Glasgow Outcome Scale showed good recovery and moderate disability in 53%, severe disability in 33% and persistent vegetative state in 14% of the patients.
-
Careful preoperative screening of candidates for indwelling drug administration systems for the relief of intractable pain can help to exclude patients who will not benefit from this technology and predict efficacy in others. Unfortunately, bias on the part of both the treating physician and the patient can inappropriately skew the results of subjective or improperly controlled trials and lead to the implantation of drug administration systems in patients who will not benefit from chronic intrathecal narcotic administration. The author and his coworkers have designed a quantitative, crossover, double-blind paradigm for screening patients who might otherwise be deemed eligible for chronic intraspinal narcotic administration. ⋯ Sixteen (80%) of 20 patients with pain related to cancer underwent pump implantation, whereas only six (60%) of the 10 patients with pain of nonmalignant origin were so treated. Sixteen of the patients (72%) have reported good to excellent relief after pump implantation; this includes 12 (75%) of the 16 patients with pain related to cancer and four (66%) of the six patients with pain of nonmalignant origin. This screening paradigm thus appears to be both reliable and easily applied and promises to be of assistance in the selection of patients appropriate for this mode of therapy.
-
Int J Obstet Anesth · Jan 1997
Low dose epidural bupivacaine/fentanyl infusion does not mask uterine rupture.
A patient is described in whom the symptoms and signs of uterine rupture were not masked by combined spinal epidural analgesia with an epidural infusion of 0.1% bupivacaine and 1.5 microg ml(-l) fentanyl. Early recognition of the dehiscence of a previous caesarean section scar resulted in an excellent neonatal and maternal outcome.