Anesthesiology
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The recent demonstration of the significant reduction in mortality in patients with septic shock treated with adjunctive glucocorticoids combined with fludrocortisone and the effectiveness of angiotensin II in treating vasodilatory shock have renewed interest in the role of the mineralocorticoid axis in critical illness. Glucocorticoids have variable interactions at the mineralocorticoid receptor. ⋯ The suggestion is that there is a defect at the level of the adrenal zona glomerulosa associated with a high mortality rate that may represent an adaptive response aimed at increasing cortisol levels. Furthermore, cross-talk exists between angiotensin II and aldosterone, which needs to be considered when employing therapeutic strategies.
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Prospective trials of enhanced recovery after spine surgery are lacking. We tested the hypothesis that an enhanced recovery pathway improves quality of recovery after one- to two-level lumbar fusion. ⋯ Statistically significant gains in early recovery were achieved by an enhanced recovery pathway. However, significant clinical impact was not demonstrated.
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Dorsal root ganglion field stimulation is an analgesic neuromodulation approach in use clinically, but its mechanism is unknown as there is no validated animal model for this purpose. The authors hypothesized that ganglion stimulation is effective in reducing pain-like behaviors in preclinical chronic pain models. ⋯ Dorsal root ganglion stimulation is effective in neuropathic and osteoarthritic preclinical rat pain models with peripheral pathologic origins, demonstrating effectiveness of ganglion stimulation in a placebo-free setting and justifying this model as a suitable platform for mechanistic studies.