Articles: cations.
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Review
Comparative Effectiveness Research on Spinal versus General Anesthesia for Surgery in Older Adults.
Comparative effectiveness research aims to understand the benefits and harms of different treatments to assist patients and clinicians in making better decisions. Within anesthesia practice, comparing outcomes of spinal versus general anesthesia in older adults represents an important focus of comparative effectiveness research. ⋯ Across contexts, randomized trials show that spinal and general anesthesia are likely to be equivalent in terms of safety and acceptability for most patients without contraindications. Choices between spinal and general anesthesia represent "preference-sensitive" care in which decisions should be guided by patients' preferences and values, informed by best available evidence.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Ultrasound-Guided Percutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation versus Surgery for Women with Unilateral Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: A Randomized Parallel-group Trial.
The aim of this clinical trial was to compare the outcomes of the application of ultrasound-guided percutaneous nerve stimulation (PENS) targeting the median nerve versus surgery for improving pain and function in women with CTS. ⋯ The application of percutaneous nerve stimulation was more effective at short-term, but similar effective at mid and long-term, than surgery in women with carpal tunnel syndrome.
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Cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) are common in idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (INPH) and have been suggested as radiological markers of a brain prone to bleeding. The presence of CMBs might be relevant when selecting patients for shunt surgery. ⋯ CMBs were associated with hemorrhagic stroke and mortality. CMBs do not seem to reduce the possibility of gait improvement after shunt surgery or contribute to the risk of hemorrhagic complications regarding subdural hematoma or hygroma.
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The administration of epinephrine after severe refractory hypotension, shock, or cardiac arrest restores systemic blood flow and major vessel perfusion but may worsen cerebral microvascular perfusion and oxygen delivery through vasoconstriction. The authors hypothesized that epinephrine induces significant microvascular constriction in the brain, with increased severity after repetitive dosing and in the aged brain, eventually leading to tissue hypoxia. ⋯ Intravenous application of epinephrine induced marked cerebral microvascular constriction, intravascular hemoglobin desaturation, and paradoxically, an increase in brain tissue oxygen levels, likely due to reduced transit time heterogeneity.
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Debilitating pain affects the lives of patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). Current pain treatment for patients with SCD fail to completely resolve acute or chronic SCD pain. Previous research indicates that the cation channel transient receptor potential vanilloid type 4 (TRPV4) mediates peripheral hypersensitivity in various inflammatory and neuropathic pain conditions that may share similar pathophysiology with SCD, but this channel's role in chronic SCD pain remains unknown. ⋯ TRPV4 blockade also reduced the mechanical sensitivity of small, but not large, dorsal root ganglia neurons from mice with SCD. Furthermore, keratinocytes from mice with SCD showed sensitized TRPV4-dependent calcium responses. These results shed new light on the role of TRPV4 in SCD chronic pain and are the first to suggest a role for epidermal keratinocytes in the heightened sensitivity observed in SCD.