Anesthesiology
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Integrating opioid risk and benefit into a single function may give a useful single measure of the opioid's positive and negative effects. An explorative study on the effects of fentanyl on antinociception and respiratory depression was performed to construct fentanyl risk-benefit (utility) functions. ⋯ Utility functions based on fentanyl's experimental effects on respiration and pain relief were successfully constructed. These functions are useful in multiple effect comparisons among experimental drugs. Further studies are required to assess whether this risk-benefit analysis is valuable in clinical practice.
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MicroRNAs participate in the regulation of numerous physiological and disease processes. The in vivo role of microRNAs in anesthetics-conferred organoprotection is unknown. ⋯ These results indicate that miR-21 contributes to the renoprotective effect of xenon preconditioning.
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Unilateral acid aspiration augments the effects of ventilator lung injury in the contralateral lung.
Mechanical ventilation is necessary during acute respiratory distress syndrome, but it promotes lung injury because of the excessive stretch applied to the aerated parenchyma. The authors' hypothesis was that after a regional lung injury, the noxious effect of mechanical ventilation on the remaining aerated parenchyma would be more pronounced. ⋯ Aggressive mechanical ventilation aggravates the preexisting lung injury, which is noxious for the contralateral, not previously injured lung, possibly because of a regional redistribution of VT.