Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Sep 2009
Anesthesiologists with substance use disorders: a 5-year outcome study from 16 state physician health programs.
Anesthesiologists have a higher rate of substance use disorders than other physicians, and their prognoses and advisability to return to anesthesiology practice after treatment remain controversial. Over the past 25 yr, physician health programs (PHPs), created under authority of state medical regulatory boards, have become primary resources for management and monitoring of physicians with substance abuse and other mental health disorders. ⋯ Anesthesiologists in our sample treated and monitored for substance disorders under supervision of PHPs had excellent outcomes similar to other physicians, with no higher mortality, relapse rate, or disciplinary rate and no evidence in their records of patient harm. It is postulated that differences of study design account for contradictory conclusions from other reports.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Sep 2009
Case ReportsUltrasound-guided ankle block in stone man disease, fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva.
In this case report, we describe the successful use of ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia in progressive fibrodysplasia ossificans (stone man disease), a condition commonly regarded as a contraindication for regional anesthesia. A patient with advanced fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva presented with osteomyelitis of a foot and was scheduled for resection of the infected bones and soft tissue. Ultrasound imaging allowed us to identify the obscured anatomic landmarks for ankle block anesthesia and to restrict the injection of local anesthetics to the epifascial tissue and subcutaneous compartment. With this ankle block, the patient uneventfully underwent surgery without need for additional sedative or analgesic drugs.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Sep 2009
Deep hypothermia attenuates microglial proliferation independent of neuronal death after prolonged cardiac arrest in rats.
Conventional resuscitation of exsanguination cardiac arrest (CA) victims is generally unsuccessful. Emergency preservation and resuscitation is a novel approach that uses an aortic flush to induce deep hypothermia during CA, followed by delayed resuscitation with cardiopulmonary bypass. Minocycline has been shown to be neuroprotective across a number of brain injury models via attenuating microglial activation. We hypothesized that deep hypothermia and minocycline would attenuate neuronal death and microglial activation and improve outcome after exsanguination CA in rats. ⋯ Deeper levels of hypothermia induced by the IC versus RT flush resulted in better neurological outcome in survivors. Surprisingly, deep hypothermia attenuated microglial activation but not hippocampal neuronal death. Minocycline had modest benefit on neurologic outcome in survivors but did not attenuate microglial activation in brain. Our findings suggest a novel effect of deep hypothermia on microglial proliferation during exsanguination CA.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Sep 2009
An anatomical study of the transversus abdominis plane block: location of the lumbar triangle of Petit and adjacent nerves.
The transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block is a new technique for providing analgesia to the anterior abdominal wall. Most previous studies have used the lumbar triangle of Petit as a landmark for the block. In this cadaveric study, we determined the exact position and size of the lumbar triangle of Petit and identified the nerves affected by the TAP block. ⋯ The lumbar triangles of Petit found in the specimens in this study were more posterior than the literature suggests. The position of the lumbar triangle of Petit varies largely and the size is relatively small. The relevant nerves to be blocked had not entered the TAP in the specimens in this study at the point of the lumbar triangle of Petit. At the midaxillary line, however, all the nerves were in the TAP.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Sep 2009
Randomized Controlled TrialNasogastric tube insertion using different techniques in anesthetized patients: a prospective, randomized study.
It is often difficult to correctly place nasogastric (NG) tubes under anesthesia. We hypothesized that simple modifications in technique of NG tube insertion will improve the success rate. ⋯ The success rate of NG tube insertion can be increased by using a ureteral guidewire as stylet, a slit endotracheal tube as an introducer, or head flexion with lateral neck pressure. Head flexion with lateral neck pressure is the easiest technique that has a high success rate and fewest complications.