Anesthesiology
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Stress Management Training Improves Overall Performance during Critical Simulated Situations.
High-fidelity simulation improves participant learning through immersive participation in a stressful situation. Stress management training might help participants to improve performance. The hypothesis of this work was that Tactics to Optimize the Potential, a stress management program, could improve resident performance during simulation. ⋯ Residents coping with simulated critical situations who have been trained with Tactics to Optimize the Potential showed better overall performance and a decrease in stress level during high-fidelity simulation. The benefits of this stress management training may be explored in actual clinical settings, where a 5-min Tactics to Optimize the Potential reactivation is feasible prior to delivering a specific intervention.
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Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers improve cognitive function. The authors therefore tested the primary hypothesis that preoperative use of angiotensin inhibitors is associated with less delirium in critical care patients. Post hoc, the association between postoperative use of angiotensin system inhibitors and delirium was assessed. ⋯ Preoperative use of angiotensin system inhibitors is not associated with reduced postoperative delirium. In contrast, treatment during intensive care was associated with lower odds of delirium. Randomized trials of postoperative angiotensin-converting enzymes inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers seem justified.
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Iron-deficiency anemia is a common perioperative condition and increases perioperative morbidity and mortality. Timely diagnosis and treatment are important. This retrospective cohort study tested the hypothesis that a newly developed preprocedure evaluation protocol diagnoses more patients with iron-deficiency anemia than the traditional practice of obtaining a complete blood count followed by iron studies. ⋯ The preprocedure anemia evaluation improved identification of iron-deficiency anemia preoperatively. It is more effective and efficient, allowing anemia evaluation with a single patient visit.
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Postoperative pain caused by trauma to nerves and tissue around the surgical site is a major problem. Perioperative steps to reduce postoperative pain include local anesthetics and opioids, the latter of which are addictive and have contributed to the opioid epidemic. Cryoneurolysis is a nonopioid and long-lasting treatment for reducing postoperative pain. However, current methods of cryoneurolysis are invasive, technically demanding, and are not tissue-selective. This project aims to determine whether ice slurry can be used as a novel, injectable, drug-free, and tissue-selective method of cryoneurolysis and resulting analgesia. ⋯ Ice slurry injection selectively targets the rat sciatic nerve, causing no damage to surrounding tissue. Injection of ice slurry around the rat sciatic nerve induced decreased nociceptive response from the baseline through neural selective cryoneurolysis.