Anesthesiology
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Regional anesthesia has an established role in providing perioperative analgesia for shoulder surgery. However, phrenic nerve palsy is a significant complication that potentially limits the use of regional anesthesia, particularly in high-risk patients. The authors describe the anatomical, physiologic, and clinical principles relevant to phrenic nerve palsy in this context. ⋯ The most important of these include limiting local anesthetic dose and injection volume and performing the injection further away from the C5-C6 nerve roots. Targeting peripheral nerves supplying the shoulder, such as the suprascapular and axillary nerves, may be an effective alternative to brachial plexus blockade in selected patients. The optimal regional anesthetic approach in shoulder surgery should be tailored to individual patients based on comorbidities, type of surgery, and the principles described in this article.
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Review Meta Analysis
A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Examining the Impact of Incident Postoperative Delirium on Mortality.
Delirium is an acute and reversible geriatric syndrome that represents a decompensation of cerebral function. Delirium is associated with adverse postoperative outcomes, but controversy exists regarding whether delirium is an independent predictor of mortality. Thus, we assessed the association between incident postoperative delirium and mortality in adult noncardiac surgery patients. ⋯ Few high-quality studies are available to estimate the impact of incident postoperative delirium on mortality. Studies that controlled for prespecified confounders did not demonstrate significant independent associations of delirium with mortality.