Lancet
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Mexiletine for treatment of chronic painful diabetic neuropathy.
Sixteen of nineteen patients completed a randomised double-blind crossover trial to assess the effect of oral mexiletine (10 mg/kg bodyweight daily) on the symptoms and signs of chronic painful diabetic neuropathy. The median age of the sixteen patients was 50 years (range 30-64). ⋯ Mexiletine treatment had no effect on tendon reflexes, vibration threshold levels, beat-to-beat variation in heart rate during deep breathing, and postural blood pressure response. Mild side-effects were seen in three of the sixteen patients during mexiletine treatment.
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Arterial and jugular bulb pressures and blood gas tensions were recorded for later analysis in 65 patients having coronary artery graft surgery. In the first 35 (group A) routine peroperative monitoring was used; and in the next 30 (group B), similar in age and other characteristics, special measures were adopted to maintain normocapnia (PaCO2 35-45 mm Hg) by continuous monitoring during surgery. On the third postoperative day clinical neurological deficits were observed in 46% of group A and 27% of group B, and psychometric deficits in 71% and 40%, respectively. On analysis of the records, more than half of group A proved to have been hypocapnic immediately before onset of cardiopulmonary bypass, and those with postoperative deficits differed from the others in this group in having had greater changes in PaCO2 after onset of bypass and lower cerebral perfusion pressures in the first 10 minutes of bypass, usually because of a rise in cerebral venous pressure.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Effect of aprotinin on need for blood transfusion after repeat open-heart surgery.
Of 22 patients undergoing repeat open-heart surgery through a previous median sternotomy wound 11 were randomised to receive the serine proteinase inhibitor aprotinin in high dosage (about 700 mg intravenously from the start of anaesthesia to the end of operation, depending on the length of the surgical procedure). Their mean blood loss was 286 ml compared with 1509 ml in the 11 control patients (p less than 0.001), and mean haemoglobin losses were 8.3 g and 78 g, respectively (p less than 0.001). Blood transfusion requirements were eightfold higher in the control group than in the aprotinin group, 7 of whom received only the single unit of their own blood taken before cardiopulmonary bypass.