A&A practice
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Hip Fracture Intervention Study for Prevention of Hypotension Trial: a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.
Hypotension during anesthesia for surgery for hip fracture is common and associated with myocardial injury, stroke, acute kidney injury, and delirium. We hypothesized that maintaining intraoperative blood pressure close to patients' preoperative values would reduce these complications compared to usual care. ⋯ A randomized controlled trial of tight intraoperative blood pressure control compared to usual care to reduce major postoperative complications after fractured neck of femur surgery is possible. However, the data would suggest a large sample size would be required for a definitive trial.
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Case Reports
Cervicothoracic Emphysema After Nasotracheal Intubation Attempt: A Life-Threatening Complication-A Case Report.
Nasotracheal intubation is a commonly used technique in elective oral and pharyngeal surgeries. This case report details an incident involving a young adult patient in which an attempt at nasotracheal intubation resulted in a life-threatening cervicofacial and thoracic emphysema. Although complications associated with nasotracheal intubation are rare, their potential severity necessitates a comprehensive preprocedural discussion and risk assessment with the surgical team to confirm its appropriate indication for each individual patient. This case underscores the need for increased awareness and readiness for managing rare but critical complications associated with airway management techniques.
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Intercostal neuralgia can be debilitating and extremely difficult to treat despite multi-modal therapies. The literature describing the role of neuromodulation in patients with intercostal neuralgia is scarce. In this medically challenging case report, we describe a 56-year-old male with a near complete resolution of intractable chronic intercostal neuralgia, secondary to traumatic rib fractures and multiple surgical interventions, with a single lead thoracic spinal cord stimulator (SCS) implant. Neuromodulation therapies should be considered as a viable option for this patient population.
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Accurate self-assessments enhance learning and patient care, yet resident physicians self-assess poorly. We therefore tested the effects of a consider-the-opposite (CTO) cognitive debiasing technique on self-assessment accuracy among anesthesiology residents. ⋯ Communication/leadership self-assessment accuracy improved by 5.63% (95% CI 0.001%-16.9%), but this did not meet our prespecified threshold for a meaningful effect. These findings do not suggest a compelling effect of this CTO intervention on self-assessment accuracy among trainees.
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This case report describes a 29-year-old patient with cerebral palsy whose mother, for safety reasons, requested that before extubation in the postanesthesia care unit, her son be transferred from the padded stretcher to his personal motorized wheelchair. Using a sling lift, we safely transferred the anesthetized, intubated patient from a supine position to an upright sitting position. Although sling lifts are often used in critical care and rehabilitation environments, use in the perioperative space is rare. In this case report, we demonstrate how a sling lift can enhance safety for patients and perioperative staff.