Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Mar 2018
ReviewCardiac Arrest in the Operating Room: Part 2-Special Situations in the Perioperative Period.
As noted in part 1 of this series, periprocedural cardiac arrest (PPCA) can differ greatly in etiology and treatment from what is described by the American Heart Association advanced cardiac life support algorithms, which were largely developed for use in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and in-hospital cardiac arrest outside of the perioperative space. Specifically, there are several life-threatening causes of PPCA of which the management should be within the skill set of all anesthesiologists. However, previous research has demonstrated that continued review and training in the management of these scenarios is greatly needed and is also associated with improved delivery of care and outcomes during PPCA. ⋯ Formulation of an appropriate differential diagnosis and rapid application of targeted interventions are critical for good patient outcome. Resuscitation algorithms that include the evaluation and management of common causes leading to cardiac in the perioperative setting are presented. Practicing anesthesiologists need a working knowledge of these algorithms to maximize good outcomes.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Mar 2018
ReviewPerioperative Inflammation and Its Modulation by Anesthetics.
Surgery and other invasive procedures, which are routinely performed during general anesthesia, may induce an inflammatory response in the patient. This inflammatory response is an inherent answer of the body to the intervention and can be both beneficial and potentially harmful. The immune system represents a unique evolutionary achievement equipping higher organisms with an effective defense mechanism against exogenous pathogens. ⋯ The effects on the patient may be manifold, including various proinflammatory effects. This review focuses on the causes and effects of inflammation in the perioperative period. In addition, we also highlight possible approaches by which inflammation in the perioperative may be modulated in the future.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Mar 2018
Observational StudyRisk Stratification for Major Postoperative Complications in Patients Undergoing Intra-abdominal General Surgery Using Latent Class Analysis.
Preoperative risk stratification is a critical element in assessing the risks and benefits of surgery. Prior work has demonstrated that intra-abdominal general surgery patients can be classified based on their comorbidities and risk factors using latent class analysis (LCA), a model-based clustering technique designed to find groups of patients that are similar with respect to characteristics entered into the model. Moreover, the latent risk classes were predictive of 30-day mortality. We evaluated the use of latent risk classes to predict the risk of major postoperative complications. ⋯ LCA can be used to classify patients undergoing intra-abdominal general surgery based on preoperative risk factors, and the classes are independently associated with postoperative complications. However, model performance is not uniform across individual complications, resulting in variations in the utility of preoperative risk stratification tools depending on the complication evaluated.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Mar 2018
ReviewCardiac Arrest in the Operating Room: Resuscitation and Management for the Anesthesiologist: Part 1.
Cardiac arrest in the operating room and procedural areas has a different spectrum of causes (ie, hypovolemia, gas embolism, and hyperkalemia), and rapid and appropriate evaluation and management of these causes require modification of traditional cardiac arrest algorithms. There is a small but growing body of literature describing the incidence, causes, treatments, and outcomes of circulatory crisis and perioperative cardiac arrest. ⋯ Management of cardiac arrest of the perioperative patient is predicated on expert opinion, physiologic rationale, and an understanding of the context in which these events occur. Resuscitation algorithms should consider the evaluation and management of these causes of crisis in the perioperative setting.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Mar 2018
Review Comparative StudyStatistical Significance Versus Clinical Importance of Observed Effect Sizes: What Do P Values and Confidence Intervals Really Represent?
Effect size measures are used to quantify treatment effects or associations between variables. Such measures, of which >70 have been described in the literature, include unstandardized and standardized differences in means, risk differences, risk ratios, odds ratios, or correlations. While null hypothesis significance testing is the predominant approach to statistical inference on effect sizes, results of such tests are often misinterpreted, provide no information on the magnitude of the estimate, and tell us nothing about the clinically importance of an effect. ⋯ This tutorial reviews different effect size measures and describes how confidence intervals can be used to address not only the statistical significance but also the clinical significance of the observed effect or association. Moreover, we discuss what P values actually represent, and how they provide supplemental information about the significant versus nonsignificant dichotomy. This tutorial intentionally focuses on an intuitive explanation of concepts and interpretation of results, rather than on the underlying mathematical theory or concepts.