Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Jan 1997
Cocaine screening of parturients without prenatal care: an evaluation of a rapid screening assay.
Illicit drugs are used widely by inner city patients in our society. Because cocaine ingestion can produce life-threatening arrhythmias and interact with anesthetic drugs, it is potentially useful for the anesthesiologist to know a high-risk patient's cocaine status before administering anesthesia. The commonly used methods to detect cocaine abuse, however, often require 1-3 days for laboratory processing. ⋯ A new rapid latex agglutination assay for urinary metabolites of cocaine (OnTrak Abuscreen; Roche Diagnostic Systems Inc., Branchburg, NJ) was compared with an assay used by many hospital laboratories. The prevalence of cocaine abuse in the group of unregistered parturients was found to be 68%, with the latex agglutination results exactly matching the hospital laboratory results (kappa = 1.0). A sensitive and specific method now exists that allows anesthesiologists to assess cocaine use rapidly, so that they can use this information when planning a patient's anesthetic.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Jan 1997
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialSmall-dose hypobaric lidocaine-fentanyl spinal anesthesia for short duration outpatient laparoscopy. I. A randomized comparison with conventional dose hyperbaric lidocaine.
A randomized, single-blind trial of two spinal anesthetic solutions for outpatient laparoscopy was conducted to compare intraoperative conditions and postoperative recovery. Thirty women (ASA physical status I and II) were assigned to one of two groups. Group I patients received a small-dose hypobaric solution of 1% lidocaine 25 mg made up to 3 mL by the addition of fentanyl 25 micrograms. ⋯ On follow-up, 96% said they found spinal needle insertion acceptable, 93% found surgery comfortable, and 90% said they would request spinal anesthesia for laparoscopy in future. Overall, this study found spinal anesthesia for outpatient laparoscopy to have high patient acceptance and a comparable complication rate to other studies. The small-dose hypobaric lidocaine-fentanyl technique has advantages over conventional-dose hyperbaric lidocaine of no hypotension and faster recovery.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Jan 1997
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialThe effects of reversal of neuromuscular blockade on autonomic control in the perioperative period.
Impaired parasympathetic control of heart rate is associated with increased incidence of cardiac dysrhythmias and ischemia. Anticholinergic drugs suppress parasympathetic control and could be detrimental in the early postoperative period in high-risk patients. In this double-blind randomized trial, 30 ASA physical status I and II patients undergoing minor surgery received either atropine 20 micrograms/kg and neostigmine 50 micrograms/kg (Group A), glycopyrrolate 8 micrograms/kg and neostigmine 50 micrograms/kg (Group G), or placebo (Group P) for reversal of neuromuscular blockade. ⋯ Groups A and G showed a borderline decrease in normalized high-frequency variability at 2 h (P = 0.05 for Groups A and G versus Group P). Anticholinergic drugs with neostigmine cause impairment of parasympathetic control of heart rate which persists into the early postoperative period. The effects of glycopyrrolate appear to be of shorter duration; this drug may thus be preferable in patients at risk of cardiovascular complications.