Anesthesiology
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A medically induced coma is an anesthetic state of profound brain inactivation created to treat status epilepticus and to provide cerebral protection after traumatic brain injuries. The authors hypothesized that a closed-loop anesthetic delivery system could automatically and precisely control the electroencephalogram state of burst suppression and efficiently maintain a medically induced coma. ⋯ The findings of this study establish the feasibility of using a closed-loop anesthetic delivery systems to achieve in real time reliable and accurate control of burst suppression in rodents and suggest a paradigm to precisely control medically induced coma in patients.
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Risk stratification is essential for both clinical risk prediction and comparative audit. There are a variety of risk stratification tools available for use in major noncardiac surgery, but their discrimination and calibration have not previously been systematically reviewed in heterogeneous patient cohorts. Embase, MEDLINE, and Web of Science were searched for studies published between January 1, 1980 and August 6, 2011 in adult patients undergoing major noncardiac, nonneurological surgery. ⋯ The Portsmouth-Physiology and Operative Severity Score for the enUmeration of Mortality and the Surgical Risk Scale were demonstrated to be the most consistently accurate tools that have been validated in multiple studies; however, both have limitations. Future work should focus on further evaluation of these and other parsimonious risk predictors, including validation in international cohorts. There is also a need for studies examining the impact that the use of these tools has on clinical decision making and patient outcome.
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Sepsis remains a leading cause of death in intensive care units. There is growing evidence that volatile anesthetics have beneficial immunomodulatory effects on complex inflammation-mediated conditions. The authors investigated the effect of volatile anesthetics on the overall survival of mice in a sepsis model of cecal ligation and puncture (CLP). ⋯ Administration of the volatile anesthetics desflurane and sevoflurane reduced CLP-induced mortality. Anesthesia may be a critical confounder when comparing study data where different anesthesia protocols were used.
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An increasing number of patients with congenital heart disease are surviving to adulthood. Consensus guidelines and expert opinion suggest that noncardiac surgery is a high-risk event, but few data describe perioperative outcomes in this population. ⋯ Compared with a matched control cohort, ACHD patients undergoing noncardiac surgery experienced increased perioperative morbidity and mortality. Within the limitations of a retrospective analysis of a large administrative dataset, this finding demonstrates that this is a vulnerable population and suggests that better efforts are needed to understand and improve the perioperative care they receive.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Individually Optimized Hemodynamic Therapy Reduces Complications and Length of Stay in the Intensive Care Unit: A Prospective, Randomized Controlled Trial.
The authors hypothesized that goal-directed hemodynamic therapy, based on the combination of functional and volumetric hemodynamic parameters, improves outcome in patients with cardiac surgery. Therefore, a therapy guided by stroke volume variation, individually optimized global end-diastolic volume index, cardiac index, and mean arterial pressure was compared with an algorithm based on mean arterial pressure and central venous pressure. ⋯ Early goal-directed hemodynamic therapy based on cardiac index, stroke volume variation, and optimized global end-diastolic volume index reduces complications and length of ICU stay after cardiac surgery.