Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Apr 2018
Review Meta AnalysisIntravenous Iron for Treatment of Anemia in the 3 Perisurgical Phases: A Review and Analysis of the Current Literature.
Anemia is a common comorbidity throughout the entire hospital stay. Treatment options include intravenous (IV) iron, oral iron, erythropoietin, and red blood cell (RBC) transfusions. IV iron has gained in popularity with the implementation of patient blood management programs. ⋯ Published RCTs in the postoperative setting have shown positive effects of IV iron on Hb levels, length of hospital stay, and transfusion requirements. Some studies demonstrated an increase of Hb of 0.5-1 g/dL over 4 weeks postoperatively, but the clinical relevance and effect of this increase on an improvement of patient's long-term outcomes are uncertain. To summarize, the evidence to use IV iron is strongest in the preoperative setting, while it remains an individual treatment decision to administer IV iron perioperatively or postoperatively.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Apr 2018
ReviewFatigue Risk Management: The Impact of Anesthesiology Residents' Work Schedules on Job Performance and a Review of Potential Countermeasures.
Long duty periods and overnight call shifts impair physicians' performance on measures of vigilance, psychomotor functioning, alertness, and mood. Anesthesiology residents typically work between 64 and 70 hours per week and are often required to work 24 hours or overnight shifts, sometimes taking call every third night. Mitigating the effects of sleep loss, circadian misalignment, and sleep inertia requires an understanding of the relationship among work schedules, fatigue, and job performance. ⋯ We then propose countermeasures that have been implemented to mitigate the effects of fatigue and describe how training programs or practice groups who must work overnight can adapt these strategies for use in a hospital setting. Countermeasures include the use of scheduling interventions, strategic naps, microbreaks, caffeine use during overnight and extended shifts, and the use of bright lights in the clinical setting when possible or personal blue light devices when the room lights must be turned off. Although this review focuses primarily on anesthesiology residents in training, many of the mitigation strategies described here can be used effectively by physicians in practice.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Apr 2018
Comparative StudyAge Does Not Affect Metoprolol's Effect on Perioperative Outcomes (From the POISE Database).
Perioperative β-blockade reduces the incidence of myocardial infarction but increases that of death, stroke, and hypotension. The elderly may experience few benefits but more harms associated with β-blockade due to a normal effect of aging, that of a reduced resting heart rate. The tested hypothesis was that the effect of perioperative β-blockade is more significant with increasing age. ⋯ The effect of perioperative β-blockade on the major outcomes studied did not vary with age. Resting heart rate decreases slightly with age. Our data do not support a recommendation for the use of perioperative β-blockade in any age subgroup to achieve benefits but avoid harms. Therefore, current recommendations against the use of β-blockers in high-risk patients undergoing noncardiac surgery apply across all age groups.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Apr 2018
Randomized Controlled TrialHeating and Cooling Rates With an Esophageal Heat Exchange System.
The Esophageal Cooling Device circulates warm or cool water through an esophageal heat exchanger, but warming and cooling efficacy in patients remains unknown. We therefore determined heat exchange rates during warming and cooling. ⋯ Esophageal warming transferred 18 W which is considerably less than the 80 W reported with lower or upper body forced-air covers. However, esophageal warming can be used to supplement surface warming or provide warming in cases not amenable to surface warming. Esophageal cooling transferred more than twice as much heat as warming, consequent to the much larger difference between core and circulating fluid temperature with cooling (29°C) than warming (6°C). Esophageal cooling extracts less heat than endovascular catheters but can be used to supplement catheter-based cooling or possibly replace them in appropriate patients.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Apr 2018
Randomized Controlled TrialEfficacy of Ultrasound-Guided Serratus Plane Block on Postoperative Quality of Recovery and Analgesia After Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgery: A Randomized, Triple-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study.
The optimal regional technique for analgesia and improved quality of recovery after video-assisted thoracic surgery (a procedure associated with considerable postoperative pain) has not been established. The main objective in this study was to compare quality of recovery in patients undergoing serratus plane block (SPB) with either ropivacaine or normal saline on the first postoperative day. Secondary outcomes were analgesic outcomes, including postoperative pain intensity and opioid consumption. ⋯ Single-injection SPB with ropivacaine enhanced the quality of recovery for 2 days postoperatively and improved postoperative analgesia during the early postoperative period in patients undergoing video-assisted thoracic surgery.