Anesthesia and analgesia
-
Anesthesia and analgesia · Nov 2013
ReviewThe Use of Cognitive Aids During Emergencies in Anesthesia: A Review of the Literature.
Cognitive aids are prompts designed to help users complete a task or series of tasks. They may take the form of posters, flowcharts, checklists, or even mnemonics. It has been suggested that the use of cognitive aids improves performance and patient outcomes during anesthetic emergencies; however, a systematic assessment of the evidence is lacking. ⋯ Cognitive aids should continue to be developed from established clinical guidelines where guidelines exist. They would also benefit from more extensive simulation-based usability testing before use. Further evidence is required to explore the effects of cognitive aids in anesthetic emergencies, how they affect team function, and their design considerations.
-
Anesthesia and analgesia · Nov 2013
Randomized Controlled TrialLiposomal Bupivacaine as a Single-Injection Peripheral Nerve Block: A Dose-Response Study.
Currently available local anesthetics approved for single-injection peripheral nerve blocks have a maximum duration of <24 hours. A liposomal bupivacaine formulation (EXPAREL, Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Inc., San Diego, CA), releasing bupivacaine over 96 hours, recently gained Food and Drug Administration approval exclusively for wound infiltration but not peripheral nerve blocks. ⋯ The results of this investigation suggest that deposition of a liposomal bupivacaine formulation adjacent to the femoral nerve results in a partial sensory and motor block of >24 hours for the highest doses examined. However, the high variability of block magnitude among subjects and inverse relationship of dose and response magnitude attests to the need for a phase 3 study with a far larger sample size, and that these results should be viewed as suggestive, requiring confirmation in a future trial.