Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · May 2013
Randomized Controlled TrialThe hyperglycemic response to major noncardiac surgery and the added effect of steroid administration in patients with and without diabetes.
The pattern and magnitude of the hyperglycemic response to surgical stress, the added effect of low-dose steroids, and whether these differ in diabetics and nondiabetics remain unclear. We therefore tested 2 hypotheses: (1) that diabetics show a greater increase from preoperative to intraoperative glucose concentrations than nondiabetics; and (2) that steroid administration increases intraoperative hyperglycemia more so in diabetics compared with nondiabetics. ⋯ Treatment of intraoperative hyperglycemia should account for the hyperglycemic surgical stress response trend depending on the stage of surgery as well as the added effects of steroid administration. Denying steroid prophylaxis for postoperative nausea and vomiting for fear of hyperglycemic response should be reconsidered given the limited effect of steroids on intraoperative blood glucose concentrations.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · May 2013
Review Comparative StudyEstimating surgical case durations and making comparisons among facilities: identifying facilities with lower anesthesia professional fees.
Consumer-driven health care relies on transparency in cost estimates for surgery, including anesthesia professional fees. Using systematic narrative review, we show that providing anesthesia costs requires that each facility (anesthesia group) estimate statistics, reasonably the mean and the 90% upper prediction limit of case durations by procedure. The prediction limits need to be calculated, for many procedures, using Bayesian methods based on the log-normal distribution. ⋯ Such comparisons of durations among facilities should be performed with correction for the effects of the multiple comparisons. Our review also has direct implications to the potentially more important issue of how to study the association between anesthetic durations and patient morbidity and mortality. When pooling duration data among facilities, both the large heterogeneity in the means and coefficients of variation of durations among facilities need to be considered (e.g., using "multilevel" or "hierarchical" models).
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Anesthesia and analgesia · May 2013
Randomized Controlled TrialThe VeinViewer vascular imaging system worsens first-attempt cannulation rate for experienced nurses in infants and children with anticipated difficult intravenous access.
The VeinViewer (Luminetx, Memphis, TN) helps identify veins by projecting an image of subcutaneous vasculature on the skin surface. We tested the primary hypothesis that VeinViewer use improves cannulation success by skilled nurses in pediatric patients with anticipated difficult IV access. A secondary goal was to evaluate the relationship between obesity and cannulation success. ⋯ The VeinViewer worsened first-attempt IV insertion success by skilled nurses. Surprisingly, first-attempt success for IV cannulation was not worsened by obesity.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · May 2013
Multicenter StudyA multicenter evaluation of a compact, sterile, single-use pressure transducer for central venous catheter placement.
Inadvertent arterial placement of a large-bore catheter during attempted placement of a central venous catheter (CVC) occurs at a rate of 0.1% to 1.0% and may result in hemorrhage, pseudoaneurysm, stroke, or death. Ultrasound guidance or observation of color and pulsatility of blood are not reliable methods for avoiding this serious complication. Measurement of pressure in the needle or short plastic catheter before insertion of the guidewire has been shown to be highly reliable; however, traditional pressure measurement methodology is cumbersome. Recently a compact, sterile, single-use pressure transducer with an integrated digital display has become available. In this study, we evaluated the performance of this new device (Compass® Vascular Access). ⋯ The Compass pressure transducer for CVC placement performed as intended in 298 cases from 4 academic medical centers. There were 5 inadvertent arterial punctures despite the use of ultrasound guidance, all of which were correctly identified by pressure measurement using the Compass. The device was easily used by trainees, and users expressed a positive level of satisfaction.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · May 2013
The association between nitrous oxide and postoperative mortality and morbidity after noncardiac surgery.
Nitrous oxide (N2O) has been widely used in clinical anesthesia for >150 years. However, use of N2O has decreased in recent years because of concern about the drug's metabolic side effects. But evidence that routine use of N2O causes clinically important toxicity remains elusive. We therefore evaluated the relationship between intraoperative N2O administration and 30-day mortality as well as a set of major inpatient postoperative complications (including mortality) in adults who had general anesthesia for noncardiac surgery. ⋯ Intraoperative N2O administration was associated with decreased odds of 30-day mortality and decreased odds of in-hospital mortality/morbidity. Aside from its specific and well-known contraindications, the results of this study do not support eliminating N2O from anesthetic practice.