Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Oct 2022
Pharmacokinetics a>nd Tolerability of Intraperitoneal Chloroprocaine After Fetal Extraction in Women Undergoing Cesarean Delivery.
Intraperitoneal chloroprocaine has been used during cesarean delivery to supplement suboptimal neuraxial anesthesia for decades. The short in vitro half-life of chloroprocaine (11-21 seconds) has been cited to support the safety of this approach. However, there are no data regarding the rate of absorption, representing patient drug exposure, through this route of administration. Accordingly, we designed a study to determine the in vivo half-life of intraperitoneal chloroprocaine and assess clinical tolerability. ⋯ The in vivo half-life of intraperitoneal chloroprocaine (5.3 minutes) is more than an order of magnitude greater than the in vitro half-life (11-21 seconds). However, maximum plasma concentrations of chloroprocaine (C max range, 0.05-79.9 µg/kg) were not associated with local anesthetic systemic toxicity and remain well below our predefined safe level of exposure (970 µg/kg) and levels associated with clinical symptoms (2.6-2.9 mg/kg). Therefore, our study suggests that intraperitoneal chloroprocaine, in a dosage ≤1200 mg, administered after fetal extraction, is well tolerated during cesarean delivery.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Oct 2022
ReviewIt's Not Just the Prices: Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing for Initiation of Veno-Venous Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation at Three International Sites-A Case Review.
The United States spends more for intensive care units (ICUs) than do other high-income countries. We used time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) to analyze ICU costs for initiation of veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV ECMO) for respiratory failure to estimate how much of the higher ICU costs at 1 US site can be attributed to the higher prices paid to ICU personnel, and how much is caused by the US site's use of a higher cost staffing model. We accompanied our TDABC approach with narrative review of the ECMO programs, at Cedars-Sinai (Los Angeles), Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière (Paris), and The Alfred Hospital (Melbourne) from 2017 to 2019. ⋯ Most of the cost differential was caused by personnel staffing intensity and mix. This study demonstrates how TDABC may be used in ICU administration to quantify the savings that 1 US hospital could achieve by delivering the same quality of care with fewer and less-costly mix of clinicians compared to a French and Australian site. Narrative reviews contextualized how the care models evolved at each site and helped identify potential barriers to change.
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Postoperative cognitive dysfunction and delirium are undesirable consequences of surgery and anesthesia that regrettably do not have consistent predictive markers. Nor do they have reliable prophylactic or treatment methodologies. In an effort to better understand how anesthetic drugs alter the rate of postoperative delirium, Chang et al explore how patients with preoperative cognitive impairment respond to the influence of intraoperative ketamine. ⋯ Is it possible that ketamine and other drugs could be used as agents to stratify cognitive risk? Should we definitively avoid such drugs as potentiators of cognitive dysfunction? A variety of contextual limitations must be entertained when interpreting the results of this study as summarized in this infographic. These are also elaborated in greater detail in both the primary article as well as its attendant editorial. The reader is encouraged to review both in their entirety for an in-depth scope of understanding.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Oct 2022
A Call to Action: A Specialty-Specific Course to Support the Next Generation of Clinician Scientists in Anesthesiology.
Clinical production pressure is a significant problem for faculty of anesthesiology departments who seek to remain involved in research. Lack of protected time to dedicate to research and insufficient external funding add to this long-standing issue. Recent trends in funding to the departments of anesthesiology and their academic output validate these concerns. ⋯ Directed toward early career academic anesthesiologists who wish to gain competency specifically in the fundamentals of clinical research and receive mentorship to develop an investigative project, the yearlong course will provide participants with the skills necessary to design research initiatives, ethically direct research teams, successfully communicate ideas with data analysts, and write and submit scientific articles. Additionally, the course, articulated in a series of interactive lectures, mentored activities, and workshops, will teach participants to review articles submitted for publication to medical journals and to critically appraise evidence in published research. It is our hope that this initiative will be of interest to junior faculty of academic anesthesiology departments nationally and internationally.