Anesthesiology
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An in vitro model of epidural catheter contamination was used to determine if disconnected catheters can be safely reconnected. ⋯ There may be an area distal to the disconnected end of an epidural catheter where its interior remains sterile for at least 8 hr. Such an area exists only when the fluid in the catheter remains static. Furthermore, the exterior of the catheter can be adequately cleaned to prevent bacteria from entering the catheter when reconnected at that point.
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The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans offers many advantages as a model organism for studying volatile anesthetic actions. It has a simple, well-understood nervous system; it allows the researcher to do forward genetics; and its genome will soon be completely sequenced. C. elegans is immobilized by volatile anesthetics only at high concentrations and with an unusually slow time course. Here other behavioral dysfunctions are considered as anesthetic endpoints in C. elegans. ⋯ Volatile anesthetics selectively disrupt C. elegans behavior. The potency, time course, and recovery characteristics of halothane's effects on three behaviors are similar to its anesthetic properties in vertebrates. The affected nervous system molecules may express structural motifs similar to those on vertebrate anesthetic targets.