Anesthesia and analgesia
-
Anesthesia and analgesia · Sep 2020
Comparative StudyIndustry-Wide Survey of Academic Anesthesiology Departments Provides Up-to-Date Benchmarking Data on Surgical Anesthesia Productivity.
Benchmarking group surgical anesthesia productivity continues to be an important but challenging goal for anesthesiology groups. Benchmarking is important because it provides objective data to evaluate staffing needs and costs, identify potential operating room management decisions that could reduce costs or improve efficiency, and support ongoing negotiations and discussions with health system leadership. Unfortunately, good and meaningful benchmarking data are not readily available. Therefore, a survey of academic anesthesiology departments was done to provide current benchmarking data. ⋯ To make data-driven decisions on clinical productivity, anesthesiology leaders need to be able to make meaningful comparisons at the facility level. For a group that provides care in multiple facilities, one can make internal comparisons among facilities and follow measurements over time. It is valuable for leaders to also be compare their facilities with industry-wide measurements, in other words, benchmark their facilities. These results provide benchmarking data for academic anesthesiology departments.
-
Anesthesia and analgesia · Sep 2020
Molecular Interaction Between Butorphanol and κ-Opioid Receptor.
The misuse of opioids stems, in part, from inadequate knowledge of molecular interactions between opioids and opioid receptors. It is still unclear why some opioids are far more addictive than others. The κ-opioid receptor (KOR) plays a critical role in modulating pain, addiction, and many other physiological and pathological processes. Butorphanol, an opioid analgesic, is a less addictive opioid with unique pharmacological profiles. In this study, we investigated the interaction between butorphanol and KOR to obtain insights into the safe usage of this medication. ⋯ In conclusion, butorphanol is a partial KOR agonist in the G-protein activation pathway and a potent KOR full agonist in the β-arrestin recruitment pathway. The structure analysis offers insights into the molecular mechanism of KOR interaction and activation by butorphanol.