Anesthesiology
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Impact of Methylprednisolone on Postoperative Quality of Recovery and Delirium in the Steroids in Cardiac Surgery Trial: A Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled Substudy.
Inflammation after cardiopulmonary bypass may contribute to postoperative delirium and cognitive dysfunction. The authors evaluated the effect of high-dose methylprednisolone to suppress inflammation on the incidence of delirium and postoperative quality of recovery after cardiac surgery. ⋯ High-dose intraoperative methylprednisolone neither reduces delirium nor improves the quality of recovery in high-risk cardiac surgical patients.
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Although peripheral nerve blocks decrease pain after total knee arthroplasty, the population-level impact of nerve blocks on arthroplasty resource utilization is unknown. ⋯ Nerve blocks in total knee arthroplasty patients were associated with statistically significant reductions in length of stay and readmissions, but not emergency department visits or falls. The significance of these findings at the patient level and in contemporary practice requires further exploration in prospective randomized studies at low risk of indication bias.
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Grade inflation is pervasive in educational settings in the United States. One driver of grade inflation may be faculty concern that assigning lower clinical performance scores to trainees will cause them to retaliate and assign lower teaching scores to the faculty member. The finding of near-zero retaliation would be important to faculty members who evaluate trainees. ⋯ These results imply that faculty members can provide confidential evaluations and written feedback to trainees with near-zero impact on their mean teaching scores.
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Anesthesia during the synaptogenic period induces dendritic spine formation, which may affect neurodevelopment. The authors, therefore, evaluated whether changes in synaptic transmission after dendritic spine formation induced by sevoflurane were associated with long-term behavioral changes. The effects of sevoflurane on mitochondrial function were also assessed to further understand the mechanism behind spinogenesis. ⋯ Sevoflurane exposure during the critical period induces mitochondrial hyperactivity and transient imbalance of excitatory/inhibitory synaptic transmission, without long-lasting behavioral consequences. Further studies are needed to confirm sexual differences and to define the role of mitochondrial activity during anesthesia-induced spine formation.