Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Jan 2025
Multicenter StudyIdentifying Variation in Intraoperative Management of Brain-Dead Organ Donors and Opportunities for Improvement: A Multicenter Perioperative Outcomes Group Analysis.
Intraoperative events and clinical management of deceased organ donors after brain death are poorly characterized and may consequently vary between hospitals and organ procurement organization (OPO) regions. In a multicenter cohort, we sought to estimate the incidence of hypotension and anesthetic and nonanesthetic medication use during organ recovery procedures. ⋯ Despite guidelines recommending maintenance of MAP >60 mm Hg in adult brain-dead organ donors, hypotension during recovery procedures was common. Future research is needed to clarify the relationship between intraoperative events with donation and transplantation outcomes and to identify best practices for the anesthetic management of brain-dead donors in the operating room.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Jan 2025
Occurrence of Low Cardiac Index During Normotensive Periods in Cardiac Surgery: A Prospective Cohort Study Using Continuous Noninvasive Cardiac Output Monitoring.
Continuous cardiac output monitoring is not standard practice during cardiac surgery, even though patients are at substantial risk for systemic hypoperfusion. Thus, the frequency of low cardiac output during cardiac surgery is unknown. ⋯ In a prospective cohort of patients undergoing CAB surgery, low CI was common even when blood pressure was normal. CI and MAP were correlated modestly. Correlation was higher before than after CPB with substantial heterogeneity among individuals. Future studies are needed to examine the independent relation of low CI to postoperative kidney injury and other adverse outcomes related to hypoperfusion.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Jan 2025
Historical ArticleJames Watt, of Steam Engine Fame, Offered Inhaled Carbon Monoxide for Putative Therapeutic Action.
James Watt (1736-1819) is remembered as a steam engine innovator and industrial magnate. A polymath, he was also a hands-on contributor to the Medical Pneumatic Institution of Thomas Beddoes. Watt recruited Humphry Davy, who there discovered analgesic action of inhaled nitrous oxide in 1799. ⋯ The bioactive component was carbon monoxide, a readily-lethal inhibitor of the transport and utilization of respiratory oxygen. Despite appreciable toxicity, carbon monoxide is an endogenous product of heme catabolism, and low doses of the gas are under laboratory investigation for therapeutic purposes. However, Watt's hydro-carbonate constituted a setback in the development of pharmacologically useful gases.