Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Jun 2020
Comparative Study Observational StudyComparison of Invasive and Noninvasive Blood Pressure Measurements for Assessing Signal Complexity and Surgical Risk in Cardiac Surgical Patients.
Continuous arterial blood pressure (ABP) is typically recorded by placement of an intraarterial catheter. Recently, noninvasive ABP monitors have been shown to be comparable in accuracy to invasive measurements. In a previous study, we showed that the fluctuations in beat-to-beat ABP measurements were not random variations but had a complex dynamical structure, and that ABP dynamical complexity was inversely associated with surgical risk estimated using the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) index. Dynamical complexity is a mathematical construct that reflects the capacity of a physiological system to adapt to stimuli. The objectives of present study were to: (1) determine whether noninvasive beat-to-beat ABP measurements also exhibit a complex temporal structure; (2) compare the complexity of noninvasive versus invasive ABP time series; and (3) quantify the relationship between the complexity of noninvasive ABP time series and the STS risk scores. ⋯ Our results support the use of noninvasive ABP monitoring in computations of complexity-based indices that correlate with estimated surgical risk.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Jun 2020
Observational StudyFrailty Is Associated With Postoperative Delirium But Not With Postoperative Cognitive Decline in Older Noncardiac Surgery Patients.
Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) and delirium are the most common perioperative cognitive complications in older adults undergoing surgery. A recent study of cardiac surgery patients suggests that physical frailty is a risk factor for both complications. We sought to examine the relationship between preoperative frailty and postoperative delirium and preoperative frailty and POCD after major noncardiac surgery. ⋯ After adjustment for baseline cognition, testing as frail or prefrail with the FRAIL scale is associated with increased odds of postoperative delirium, but not POCD after noncardiac surgery.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Jun 2020
ReviewPalliative Care and End-of-Life Considerations for the Frail Patient.
Patients with frailty experience substantial physical and emotional distress related to their condition and face increased morbidity and mortality compared with their nonfrail peers. Palliative care is an interdisciplinary medical specialty focused on improving quality of life for patients with serious illness, including those with frailty, throughout their disease course. ⋯ We highlight the opportunities to incorporate primary palliative care, including basic symptom management and straightforward goals-of-care discussions, provided by the primary clinicians, and when necessary, timely consultation by a specialty palliative care team to assist with complex symptom management and goals-of-care discussions in the face of team and/or family conflict. In this review, we apply the principles of palliative care to patients with frailty and synthesize the evidence regarding methods to integrate palliative care into the perioperative and ICU settings.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Jun 2020
Observational StudyElectroencephalographic Findings and Clinical Behavior During Induction of Anesthesia With Sevoflurane in Human Infants: A Prospective Observational Study.
Seizures and interictal epileptiform discharges (IEDs) have been described during sevoflurane. We prospectively estimated their incidence in 54 otherwise neurologically healthy infants by obtaining the full-head video electroencephalogram (EEG). ⋯ Diffuse slowing was the most common initial EEG change followed by fast (α, β) activity in all head leads. Larger studies with more statistical power are needed to further investigate the hypotheses generated with this research.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Jun 2020
One Size Does Not Fit All: A Perspective on the American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status Classification for Pediatric Patients.
The American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status (ASA-PS) classification system is used worldwide to classify patients based on comorbid conditions before general anesthesia. Despite its popularity, the ASA-PS classification system has been shown to have poor interrater reliability due to its subjective definitions, especially when applied to the pediatric population. We hypothesized that the clarification of ASA-PS definitions to better reflect pediatric conditions would improve the accuracy of ASA-PS applied to this population. ⋯ The ASA-PS classification system has several benefits including ease-of-use, simplicity, and flexibility. However, revising the ASA-PS system to provide better guidance for pediatric patients could be valuable. While this study demonstrates good interrater reliability with the included ASA-PS pediatric definitions, further work is needed to clarify accurate assignment of ASA-PS within the midrange of the scale (ASA-PS II and III) and explore its implementation in other institutions.