Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Jan 2013
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyA prospective randomized trial of lidocaine 30 mg versus 45 mg for epidural test dose for intrathecal injection in the obstetric population.
The epidural test dose, used to identify unintended intrathecal placement, should reliably produce a spinal block without posing a threat to the patient. Most anesthesiologists administer a dose of local anesthetic, commonly lidocaine 45 mg. Pregnant patients are more sensitive to local anesthetics; high and total spinal anesthesia have been reported in the pregnant population with this dose. We hypothesized that lidocaine 30 mg was as effective as lidocaine 45 mg in creating rapid objective evidence of a sensory or motor block. ⋯ Our results suggest that there is unlikely to be a large difference in the ability of these doses to detect unintentional intrathecal catheter placement. While the negative predictive value for intrathecal injection is very high for both doses, the 95% CI for the sensitivity of either dose is too wide to demonstrate clinical safety to identify all intrathecal catheters. A much larger study is warranted to assess whether there is a lower sensitivity with the 30-mg dose, or a propensity toward high cephalad motor block levels with the 45-mg dose.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Jan 2013
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyThe learning curve associated with the epidural technique using the Episure™ AutoDetect™ versus conventional glass syringe: an open-label, randomized, controlled, crossover trial of experienced anesthesiologists in obstetric patients.
The Episure™ AutoDetect™ (spring-loaded) syringe has been observed to successfully identify the epidural space in 2 pilot studies. In this study we evaluated the impact of the spring-loaded syringe on the establishment of successful epidural labor analgesia (primary outcome), elapsed time for catheter placement, and learning curve (cumulative summary analysis, i.e., Cusum) of experienced anesthesiologists. ⋯ When used by experienced obstetric anesthesiologists, the spring-loaded syringe was associated with a similar overall rate for establishing successful epidural labor analgesia, a shorter elapsed time to epidural catheter insertion, particularly when the anesthesiologist was randomized to use the novel syringe first, and a similar Cusum curve when compared with a conventional glass syringe. Attending versus fellow anesthesiologists and an initial technique preference for loss-of-resistance to continuous saline were associated with greater analgesia success with the novel syringe.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Jan 2013
Review Meta AnalysisSafety of modern starches used during surgery.
Various hydroxyethyl starch (HES) preparations have been used for decades to augment blood volume. There has been concern recently regarding possible adverse outcomes when using HES in the intensive care setting, especially in patients with septic shock. ⋯ Consequently, we assessed the safety of tetrastarches when used during surgery, using a formal search, that yielded 59 primary full publications of studies that met a priori inclusion criteria and randomly allocated 4529 patients with 2139 patients treated with tetrastarch compared with 2390 patients treated with a comparator. There were no indications that the use of tetrastarches during surgery induces adverse renal effects as assessed by change or absolute concentrations of serum creatinine or need for renal replacement therapy (39 trials, 3389 patients), increased blood loss (38 trials, 3280 patients), allogeneic erythrocyte transfusion (20 trials, 2151 patients; odds ratio for HES transfusion 0.73 [95% confidence interval = 0.61-0.87], P = 0.0005), or increased mortality (odds ratio for HES mortality = 0.51 [0.24-1.05], P = 0.079).
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Jan 2013
Comparative StudyValidation of a stand-alone near-infrared spectroscopy system for monitoring cerebral autoregulation during cardiac surgery.
Individualizing arterial blood pressure (ABP) targets during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) based on cerebral blood flow (CBF) autoregulation monitoring may provide a more effective means for preventing cerebral hypoperfusion than the current standard of care. Autoregulation can be monitored in real time with transcranial Doppler (TCD). We have previously demonstrated that near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS)-derived regional cerebral oxygen saturation (rS(c)O(2)) provides a clinically suitable surrogate of CBF for autoregulation monitoring. The purpose of this study was to determine the accuracy of a stand-alone "plug-and-play" investigational system for autoregulation monitoring that uses a commercially available NIRS monitor with TCD methods. ⋯ Monitoring CBF autoregulation with an investigational stand-alone NIRS monitor is correlated and in good agreement with TCD-based methods. The availability of such a device would allow widespread autoregulation monitoring as a means of individualizing ABP targets during CPB.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Jan 2013
Case ReportsCase report: ultrasound-guided continuous thoracic paravertebral block for outpatient acute pain management of multilevel unilateral rib fractures.
A 61-year-old man with multiple unilateral rib fractures (T3-T8) gained the ability to breathe deeply and to ambulate after ultrasound-guided continuous thoracic paravertebral block and was discharged home after being observed for 15 hours after the block. The ultrasound guidance was helpful in determining the site of rib fractures and the optimal level for catheter placement. This report also discusses the management of analgesia using continuous paravertebral block in an outpatient with trauma.