Anaesthesia and intensive care
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Apr 1994
Informed consent--recall of risk information following epidural analgesia in labour.
Recall of information pertaining to informed consent for epidural insertion in 40 primiparous labouring women was assessed. The recall of informed consent was compared between those patients who had attended antenatal epidural education classes, and those who had not. ⋯ Recall of information was significantly better in patients who had attended antenatal epidural education classes. We recommend that informed consent for epidural analgesia in labour be obtained antenatally whenever possible, and that details of the consent be recorded in the patient's notes.
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The cost-effectiveness of the Intensive Care Unit after three decades of development has yet to be demonstrated. Accurate ICU resource allocation is limited by our inability to measure cost-effectiveness. ⋯ Methodology to examine long-term outcome and quality of life after intensive care is still in its infancy. Measurement of ICU cost is limited by a lack of cost-accounting models that not only reflect true cost but that are clinically applicable.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Feb 1994
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialIntramuscular ketorolac for postoperative analgesia following laparoscopic sterilisation.
The analgesic effect of intramuscular ketorolac was assessed by double blind study in forty women presenting for day-case laparoscopic sterilisation. The patients were randomly allocated to receive either ketorolac 30 mg or saline by intramuscular injection immediately following induction of general anaesthesia. There was no statistically significant difference between the groups in pain scores, opioid requirements or incidence of nausea and vomiting in the postoperative period. In view of the potential side-effects of ketorolac, and the apparent lack of efficacy when used prophylactically, the routine use of the drug in this group of patients cannot be recommended.