Anesthesiology
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Airway Closure during Surgical Pneumoperitoneum in Obese Patients.
Airway closure causes lack of communication between proximal airways and alveoli, making tidal inflation start only after a critical airway opening pressure is overcome. The authors conducted a matched cohort study to report the existence of this phenomenon among obese patients undergoing general anesthesia. ⋯ In obese patients, complete airway closure is frequent during anesthesia and is worsened by Trendelenburg pneumoperitoneum, which increases airway opening pressure and alveolar pressure: besides preventing alveolar derecruitment, this yields misinterpretation of respiratory mechanics and generates a pressure threshold to inflate the lung that can reach high values, spreading concerns on the safety of pressure-controlled modes in this setting.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Prolonged Perioperative Use of Pregabalin and Ketamine to Prevent Persistent Pain after Cardiac Surgery.
Persistent postsurgical pain is common and affects quality of life. The hypothesis was that use of pregabalin and ketamine would prevent persistent pain after cardiac surgery. ⋯ Preoperative administration of 150 mg of pregabalin and postoperative continuation twice daily for 14 days significantly lowered the prevalence of persistent pain after cardiac surgery.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Intravenous Lidocaine Does Not Improve Neurologic Outcomes after Cardiac Surgery: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
Why is this interesting?
Lidocaine/lignocaine has been increasingly used intra- and perioperatively as an analgesic adjunct, with further research suggesting a potential neuroprotective effect. Cognitive decline is a common problem following cardiac surgery (40-50%), with lidocaine potentially offering a simple and safe intervention to reduce this complication. Past studies have showed conflicting results.
What did they do?
This Duke University team randomized 478 cardiac surgery patients across multiple centres to lidocaine intraoperatively (1 mg/kg bolus then decreasing infusions across 2.9 / 1.5 / 0.6 mg/kg/h over 48 hours) or blinded control. Cognitive function was assessed at 6 weeks and 1 year.
They found...
No difference in cognitive deficit between lidocaine infusion and saline control at either 6 weeks or 1 year.
Be smart
Intravenous lidocaine infusion remains relatively safe, practical and is still likely a useful analgesic adjunct. Similar to magnesium, which has been shown to be neuroprotective in premature infants but not adult cardiac patients, the problem for lidocaine may well be context rather than physiological benefit itself.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Nasopharyngeal Tube Effects on Breathing during Sedation for Dental Procedures: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
Dental procedures under sedation can cause hypoxic events and even death. However, the mechanism of such hypoxic events is not well understood. ⋯ Patients under sedation for dental procedure frequently encounter obstructive apnea/hypopnea events. The majority of the obstructive apnea/hypopnea events were not detectable by pulse oximetry. The effectiveness of a small-diameter nasopharyngeal tube to mitigate the events is limited.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Nociception-guided versus Standard Care during Remifentanil-Propofol Anesthesia: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
The multidimensional index of nociception, the nociception level, outperforms blood pressure and heart rate in detection of nociceptive events during anesthesia. We hypothesized that nociception level-guided analgesia reduces opioid consumption and suboptimal anesthesia events such as low blood pressure and use of vasoactive medication. ⋯ Nociception level-guided analgesia during major abdominal surgery resulted in 30% less remifentanil consumption.