Anesthesiology
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Unwitnessed gastric aspiration can be a diagnostic dilemma, and early discrimination of different forms may help to identify individuals with increased risk of development of severe clinical acute lung injury or acute respiratory distress syndrome. The authors hypothesized that inflammatory mediator profiles could be used to help diagnose different types of gastric aspiration. ⋯ These results support the potential feasibility of developing predictive models that use focused measurements of inflammatory mediators to help diagnose severe clinical forms of unwitnessed gastric aspiration, such as the combination of acid and small gastric particles, that may have a high risk of progression to acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome.
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The aim of this study was to develop stable and easily injectable lipid depot preparations of local anesthetics in which the drug concentration can be varied according to desired duration of action. ⋯ The pharmaceutical properties of these formulations compare favorably with those of other depot preparations. The high-percentage ones showed the longest duration of action yet reported for sciatic nerve block in rats. The possibility of using a high-concentration local anesthetic depot formulation as an alternative to ethanol or phenol for long-term nerve blocks in chronic pain merits further investigation.