Anesthesiology
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Effects of epsilon-aminocaproic acid and aprotinin on leukocyte-platelet adhesion in patients undergoing cardiac surgery.
The administration of aprotinin during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) is hypothesized to decrease activation of leukocytes and platelets and possibly reduce their adhesion. Although epsilon-aminocaproic acid (EACA) shares the ability of aprotinin to inhibit excessive plasmin activity after CPB, its effect on leukocyte and platelet activation and leukocyte-platelet (heterotypic) adhesion is largely unknown. This study was performed to determine the relative effectiveness of the antifibrinolytics, aprotinin and EACA, at reducing leukocyte and platelet activation and leukocyte-platelet conjugate formation in patients undergoing CPB. ⋯ EACA seems to be as effective as aprotinin at reducing peak monocyte-platelet adhesion after CPB. Furthermore, inhibition of excessive plasmin activity seems to influence monocyte-platelet adhesion. The findings suggest that monocyte-platelet conjugate formation may be a useful marker of monocyte and platelet activation in this clinical setting.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Epidural neostigmine produces analgesia but also sedation in women after cesarean delivery.
Intrathecal neostigmine produces analgesia but also nausea, limiting its utility. In contrast, epidural administration of neostigmine has been suggested to produce postoperative analgesia without nausea in nonpregnant patients. The purpose of this study was to examine the dose range for efficacy and side effects of epidural neostigmine in women at cesarean delivery receiving combined spinal-epidural anesthesia. ⋯ Epidural neostigmine produced modest analgesia in women after cesarean delivery. In contrast with previous reports, which focused primarily on nausea, these data suggest that epidural neostigmine can also produce mild sedation for several hours. These data suggest a limited role for single bolus-administration epidural neostigmine for analgesia after cesarean delivery. They also support future study of epidural neostigmine for obstetric analgesia.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Antichemical protective gear prolongs time to successful airway management: a randomized, crossover study in humans.
Airway management is the first step in resuscitation. The extraordinary conditions in mass casualty situations impose special difficulties in airway management, even for experienced caregivers. The authors evaluated whether wearing surgical attire or antichemical protective gear made any difference in anesthetists' success of airway control with either an endotracheal tube or a laryngeal mask airway. ⋯ This first report in humans shows to what extent anesthetists' wearing of antichemical protective gear slows the time to intubate but not to insert a laryngeal mask airway compared with wearing surgical attire. Laryngeal mask airway insertion is faster than tracheal intubation when wearing protective gear, indicating its advantage for airway management when anesthetists wear antichemical protective gear. If chances for rapid and successful tracheal intubation under such chaotic conditions are poor, laryngeal mask airway insertion is a viable choice for airway management until a proper secured airway is obtainable.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
An investigation to dissociate the analgesic and anesthetic properties of ketamine using functional magnetic resonance imaging.
Anatomic sites within the brain, which activate in response to noxious stimuli, can be identified with the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging. The aim of this study was to determine whether the analgesic effects of ketamine could be imaged. ⋯ The analgesic effect can be measured within a more global effect of ketamine as shown by auditory and motor tasks, and the analgesia produced by ketamine occurs with a smaller degree of cortical processing in pain-related regions.
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Anatomic and physiologic data show that multiple regions of the forebrain are activated by pain. However, the effect of anesthetic level on nociceptive input to these regions is not well understood. ⋯ These data show that propofol has a dose-dependent effect on thalamocortical transfer of nociceptive information but that some pain-evoked cortical activity remains after loss of consciousness.