Anesthesiology
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Preparedness measures for the anticipated surge of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases within eastern Massachusetts included the establishment of alternate care sites (field hospitals). Boston Hope hospital was set up within the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center to provide low-acuity care for COVID-19 patients and to support local healthcare systems. However, early recognition of the need to provide higher levels of care, or critical care for the potential deterioration of patients recovering from COVID-19, prompted the development of a hybrid acute care-intensive care unit. ⋯ Combining quality improvement tools for hazards detection and testing through in situ simulation successfully identified several operational hurdles. Through rapid continuous analysis and iterative change, we implemented appropriate mitigation strategies and established rapid response and rescue capabilities. This study provides a framework for future planning of high-acuity services within a unique field hospital setting.
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Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic with analgesic properties. Ketamine's analgesic properties have been suggested to result from its dissociative properties. To the authors' knowledge, this postulate is unsubstantiated. The authors hypothesize that the dissociative and analgesic properties of ketamine are independent. ⋯ Ketamine's analgesic properties are not exclusively caused by dissociation. Thus, ketamine may be used as a probe to advance our knowledge of dissociation independent neural circuits that encode pain.
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Local anesthetics, particularly potent long acting ones such as bupivacaine, can cause cardiotoxicity by inhibiting sodium ion channels; however, the impact of left ventricular hypertrophy on the cardiotoxicity and the underlying mechanisms remain undetermined. Transient receptor potential canonical (TRPC) channels are upregulated in left ventricular hypertrophy. Some transient receptor potential channel subtypes have been reported to pass relatively large cations, including protonated local anesthetics; this is known as the "pore phenomenon." The authors hypothesized that bupivacaine-induced cardiotoxicity is more severe in left ventricular hypertrophy due to upregulated TRPC channels. ⋯ Left ventricular hypertrophy exacerbated bupivacaine-induced cardiotoxicity, which could be a consequence of the "pore phenomenon" of TRPC3 channels upregulated in left ventricular hypertrophy.