Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Oct 2014
ReviewControversies and complications in the perioperative management of transcatheter aortic valve replacement.
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is performed with increasing frequency in the United States since Food and Drug Administration approval in 2011. The procedure involves the replacement of a severely stenosed native or bioprosthetic aortic valve with a specially constructed valvular prosthesis that is mounted onto a stent, without the use of cardiopulmonary bypass and the complications of a major open surgical procedure. TAVR has been performed mostly in elderly patients with multiple comorbidities or who have undergone previous cardiac surgery. ⋯ Cardiovascular collapse may be the result of major hemorrhage pericardial effusion with tamponade or coronary occlusion due to incorrect valve placement. Persistent hypotension, myocardial stunning, or injury requiring open surgical intervention may necessitate the use of cardiopulmonary bypass, the facilities for which should always be immediately available. Ongoing and planned trials comparing conventional surgery with TAVR in lower risk and younger patients should determine the place of TAVR in the medium- to long-term future.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Oct 2014
Safety and Efficacy of Drug-Induced Sleep Endoscopy Using a Probability Ramp Propofol Infusion System in Patients with Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea.
Drug-induced sleep endoscopy (DISE) uses sedative-hypnotics to induce moderate obstruction in sleep apnea patients, thereby facilitating anatomic assessment of obstructive physiology. Implementation of DISE with propofol requires a dosing strategy that reliably and efficiently produces obstruction while minimizing oxygen desaturation. ⋯ A propofol infusion strategy that requires limited experience with propofol dose selection and only 1 pump dosing change reliably produced airway obstruction in patients with severe sleep apnea. Clinical obstruction was achieved faster than target-controlled infusion-based systems for similar procedures reported in the literature. The observed degree of oxygen desaturation in the model system was within a clinically acceptable range.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Oct 2014
Observational StudyPreoperative Statin Administration Does Not Protect Against Early Postoperative Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: A Retrospective Cohort Study.
Statins have been shown to possess antiinflammatory and immunomodulatory effects. In this study, we sought to determine if preoperative statin therapy is associated with a reduced frequency of postoperative acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in surgical populations at increased risk of developing ARDS. ⋯ In patients undergoing high-risk surgery, preoperative statin therapy was not associated with a statistically significant reduction in postoperative ARDS. These results do not support the use of statins as prophylaxis against ARDS in patients undergoing high-risk surgery.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Oct 2014
Anesthesia Complications as a Childbirth Patient Safety Indicator.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has established multiple sets of indicators for quality monitoring and improvement. One such set is the patient safety indicators (PSIs), which focuses on potentially preventable hospital complications after surgeries, procedures, and childbirth. Our objective in this study was to determine the prevalence of childbirth-related anesthesia complications by method of delivery and to evaluate the variation in complication rates across hospitals using the AHRQ PSI methodology and a modification specific to childbirth with the goal of determining the relevance of tracking anesthesia complications as a potential PSI for childbirth. ⋯ Rates of childbirth-related anesthesia complications may provide an opportunity to identify hospitals with extreme rates that may provide insights into systematic ways to improve patient safety.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Oct 2014
A novel index of hypoxemia for assessment of risk during procedural sedation.
Procedural sedation is essential for many procedures. Sedation has an excellent safety profile; however, it is not without risks. Assessment of risk using clinical outcomes in clinical studies is difficult due to their rare occurrence. Therefore, surrogate end points are frequently used in a clinical study in lieu of clinical outcomes. As a clinician integrates multiple aspects of a physiological variable to determine potential risk, a surrogate end point should consider a similar approach. In this study, we identified and tested the appropriateness of a new surrogate end point that may be used in clinical studies, area under the curve of oxygen desaturation (AUCDesat). A review of patient sedation records by anesthesiologists was conducted to assess its relationship to the anesthesia professional perception of risk. ⋯ Anesthesiologists determined arterial oxygenation to be the most important physiological variable in assessing sedation risk and the potential for adverse clinical outcomes. AUCDesat, a composite index that incorporates duration, incidence, and depth of oxygen desaturation, was better correlated to the Likert scores. AUCDesat, given that it is a single numerical variable, is an ideal end point for assessment of risk of adverse clinical outcomes in clinical sedation studies. Future studies using AUCDesat and actual physiological outcomes may be useful in further defining this end point.