Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Dec 2009
Need for emergency surgical airway reduced by a comprehensive difficult airway program.
Inability to intubate and ventilate patients with respiratory failure is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. A patient is considered to have a difficult airway if an anesthesiologist or other health care provider experienced in airway management is unable to ventilate the patient's lungs using bag-mask ventilation and/or is unable to intubate the trachea using direct laryngoscopy. ⋯ A comprehensive difficult airway program was associated with a reduction in the number of emergency surgical airway procedures performed for the inability of an anesthesiologist to intubate and ventilate, a reduction that was sustained over an 11-yr period. This decrease occurred despite an increase in the number of patients reported to have a difficult airway and an overall increase in the total number of patients receiving anesthesia per year.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Dec 2009
Randomized Controlled TrialSystemic lidocaine decreased the perioperative opioid analgesic requirements but failed to reduce discharge time after ambulatory surgery.
In this randomized, blinded, placebo-controlled trial, we evaluated whether systemic lidocaine would reduce pain and time to discharge in ambulatory surgery patients. ⋯ Perioperative systemic lidocaine significantly reduces opioid requirements in the ambulatory setting without affecting time to discharge.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Dec 2009
ReviewClinical implications of neuraxial anesthesia in the parturient with scoliosis.
Scoliosis can pose challenges to the initiation and function of neuraxial anesthetics. We reviewed the available literature exploring neuraxial techniques in parturients with uncorrected or corrected (i.e., surgically instrumented) scoliosis. The 22 articles reported 117 attempted neuraxial procedures (uncorrected n = 24 and corrected n = 93). ⋯ Procedures were typically more challenging in corrected patients; 90% of all reported difficulties in this subgroup involved epidural anesthetics. Complications were reported in 3 of 103 patients. We provide suggestions for optimizing efficacy of neuraxial techniques in these patients.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Dec 2009
Randomized Controlled TrialThe effect of single-dose propofol injection on pain and quality of life in chronic daily headache: a randomized, double-blind, controlled trial.
On the basis of a small number of case studies, IV propofol has been advocated for the treatment of chronic daily headache (CDH). There has been no randomized controlled trial of this therapy. Our objective in this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was to determine whether a single IV dose of propofol 2.4 mg/kg results in clinically significant reduction in disability or pain in CDH for the next 30 days. ⋯ A single IV infusion of propofol 2.4 mg/kg produces a statistically significant, but not clinically meaningful, reduction in disability from CDH 30 days after infusion and does not reduce pain intensity or analgesic use. This study does not support this regimen of IV propofol for clinical management of CDH.