Articles: anesthetics.
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J Neurosurg Anesthesiol · Apr 2024
T2-weighted Imaging Hyperintensity and Transcranial Motor-evoked Potentials During Cervical Spine Surgery: Effects of Sevoflurane in 150 Consecutive Cases.
There is debate on the impact of inhalational esthetic agents on transcranial motor evoked potentials (TcMEPs) during intraoperative neuromonitoring. Current guidelines advise their avoidance, which contrasts with common clinical practice. ⋯ Balanced anesthesia with 0.5 MAC sevoflurane in patients with and without radiological evidence of myelopathy/SCI allows reliable TcMEP monitoring. However, in communication with surgical and neuromonitoring teams, it may be advisable in a subset of patients to avoid or discontinue sevoflurane in favor of a propofol/opioid-based anesthetic to ensure adequate and reproducible TcMEPs.
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J Clin Monit Comput · Apr 2024
ReviewClosed-loop anesthesia: foundations and applications in contemporary perioperative medicine.
A closed-loop automatically controls a variable using the principle of feedback. Automation within anesthesia typically aims to improve the stability of a controlled variable and reduce workload associated with simple repetitive tasks. This approach attempts to limit errors due to distractions or fatigue while simultaneously increasing compliance to evidence based perioperative protocols. ⋯ Despite their advantages, these tools still require that a well-trained practitioner maintains situation awareness, understands how closed-loop systems react to each variable, and is ready to retake control if the closed-loop systems fail. In the future, multiple input multiple output closed-loop systems will control anesthetic, fluid and vasopressor titration and may perhaps integrate other key systems, such as the anesthesia machine. Human supervision will nonetheless always be indispensable as situation awareness, communication, and prediction of events remain irreplaceable human factors.
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J Neurosurg Anesthesiol · Apr 2024
Observational StudyEffect of Repeated Exposure to Sevoflurane on Electroencephalographic Alpha Oscillation in Pediatric Patients Undergoing Radiation Therapy: A Prospective Observational Study.
Pharmacological tolerance is defined as a decrease in the effect of a drug over time, or the need to increase the dose to achieve the same effect. It has not been established whether repeated exposure to sevoflurane induces tolerance in children. ⋯ Our results suggest that children undergoing repeated anesthesia exposure for radiotherapy do not develop tolerance to sevoflurane. However, we found that a group of patients exhibited a reduction in the alpha relative power as a function of anesthetic exposure. These results may have implications that justify further studies.
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Continuous infusion ketamine has demonstrated efficacy in the management of refractory seizures yet does not suppress respiratory drive like other continuous infusion anesthetics (CIAs) used for this indication. The aim of this study is to describe the safety and efficacy of ketamine infusions in patients with refractory seizure without intubation. ⋯ Ketamine represents a safe and effective treatment option for refractory seizures and has potential to reduce morbidity associated with intubation in a carefully selected patient population. Early initiation may increase the likelihood of success.
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Apr 2024
A pragmatic methodology to extract anesthetic and physiological data from the electronic health record.
Traditional manual methods of extracting anesthetic and physiological data from the electronic health record rely upon visual transcription by a human analyst that can be labor-intensive and prone to error. Technical complexity, relative inexperience in computer coding, and decreased access to data warehouses can deter investigators from obtaining valuable electronic health record data for research studies, especially in under-resourced settings. We therefore aimed to develop, pilot, and demonstrate the effectiveness and utility of a pragmatic data extraction methodology. ⋯ We describe a pragmatic data extraction methodology that does not require additional software or coding skills intended to enhance the ease, speed, and accuracy of data collection that could assist in clinician investigator-initiated research and quality/process improvement projects.