African health sciences
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African health sciences · Jun 2015
Randomized Controlled TrialA randomized controlled trial comparing haemodynamic stability in elderly patients undergoing spinal anaesthesia at L5, S1 versus spinal anaesthesia at L3, 4 at a tertiary African hospital.
Spinal anaesthesia is a routinely used anaesthetic technique in elderly patients (> 60 years) undergoing operations involving the lower limbs, lower abdomen, pelvis and the perineum. Spinal anaesthesia has several advantages over general anaesthesia including stable haemodynamic variables, less blood loss, less post-operative pain, faster recovery time and less post-operative confusion. Despite these advantages, the sympathetic blockade induced by spinal anaesthesia can result in hypotension, bradycardia, dysrhythmias and cardiac arrests. Conventionally, spinal anaesthesia is performed at the level of L3,4 interspace; with a reported incidence of hypotension in the elderly ranging between 65% and 69%. A possible strategy for reducing spinal induced hypotension would be to minimize the peak block height to as low as possible for the planned procedure. ⋯ Among this population, there was no difference in the proportion of those with hypotension between the elderly patients who received their spinal anaesthesia at L3,4 and those who received spinal anaesthesia at L5,S1. The intervention group had better outcomes with significantly less episodes of hypotension. It took a longer time to achieve a maximum peak sensory block in the intervention group. Performing spinal anaesthesia at the level of L5,S1 was found to provide an adequate sensory block for a wide range of pelvic, perineal and lower limb surgeries.
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African health sciences · Jun 2015
Randomized Controlled TrialPsychological wellbeing and biochemical modulation in response to weight loss in obese type 2 diabetes patients.
Obesity in type 2 diabetes patients is a serious health issue by itself; it is also associated with other health problems including psychiatric illnesses. The psychological effects of dieting and weight loss have been a matter of controversy in the field of obesity management. ⋯ Physical training and dietary measures can be used as methods of choice for psychological wellbeing and biochemical modulation in obese type 2 diabetes patients.