Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Jun 2013
Editorial CommentA beach chair, comfortably positioned atop an iceberg.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Oct 2013
Comparative StudyNeuraxial Anesthesia Decreases Postoperative Systemic Infection Risk Compared with General Anesthesia in Knee Arthroplasty.
This large, retrospective observational study found that neuraxial anaesthesia was associated with a significantly lower risk of both pneumonia (OR 0.51) and composite systemic infection (OR 0.77) than general anaesthesia in patients undergoing knee arthroplasty.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Oct 2013
ReviewDecision Support for Hemodynamic Management: From Graphical Displays to Closed Loop Systems.
The way hemodynamic therapies are delivered today in anesthesia and critical care is suboptimal. Hemodynamic variables are not always understood correctly and used properly. The adoption of hemodynamic goal-directed strategies, known to be clinically useful, is poor. ⋯ However, most therapeutic decisions cannot be based on a limited number of output variables. Therefore, one should focus on the development of systems designed to relieve clinicians from very simple and repetitive tasks. Whether intraoperative goal-directed fluid therapy may be one of these tasks remains to be evaluated.
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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 · Aug 2013
Randomized Controlled TrialThe effect of a bolus dose of intravenous lidocaine on the minimum alveolar concentration of sevoflurane: a prospective, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial.
The anesthetic effect of volatile anesthetics can be quantified by the minimum alveolar concentration (MAC) of the drug that prevents movement in response to a noxious stimulus in 50% of patients. The underlying mechanism regarding how immobilization is achieved by volatile anesthetics is not thoroughly understood, but several drugs affect MAC. In this study, we investigated the effect of a single IV bolus dose of lidocaine on the MAC of sevoflurane in humans. ⋯ IV 1.5 mg·kg(-1) lidocaine decreased the MAC by at least 0.03% sevoflurane (mean difference 0.23% sevoflurane [95% adjusted CI, 0.03-0.43]). We did not observe a significant reduction in the MAC of sevoflurane with the IV administration of 0.75 mg·kg(-1) lidocaine.