Journal of clinical anesthesia
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Pain is one of the main postoperative adverse outcomes. Single analgesics, either opioid or nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), are not able to provide effective pain relief without side effects such as nausea, vomiting, sedation, or bleeding. A majority of double or single-blind studies investigating the use of NSAIDs and opioid analgesics with or without local anesthetic infiltration showed that patients experience lower pain scores, need fewer analgesics, and have a prolonged time to requiring analgesics after surgery. This review focuses on multimodal analgesia, which is currently recommended for effective postoperative pain control.
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To investigate changes that most surgical suites will need to make in the process of giving reports to family members on the day of surgery by the compliance date (April 14, 2003) of the privacy regulations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) of 1996. ⋯ Surgical facilities should strive to provide in-person progress reports to family members while their relatives are undergoing surgery. To satisfy HIPAA regulations, the staff and physicians who talk to family members in the waiting room will need to determine first if the patient has agreed to the release of information. As hospital information systems are updated to assure that this process is HIPAA-compliant, facilities can also incorporate the relevant statistical methods.
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The perioperative use of neuraxial techniques in the presence of anticoagulation is a controversial issue. There are significant pharmacokinetic differences between anticoagulants that will affect the timing of neuraxial needle insertion or catheter removal. The pharmacologic profiles of commonly used anticoagulants in the perioperative period are reviewed. Studies examining the use of neuraxial techniques in the presence of various anticoagulants are reviewed and evaluated in the context of the American Society of Regional Anesthesia consensus statements.
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Potential for assessing liver function during liver transplantation surgery by monitoring muscle paralysis from nondepolarizing neuromuscular blockers that are hepatically cleared is critically assessed. Rocuronium is strongly favored as a promising pharmacodynamic probe for predicting allograft liver function because it is predominantly eliminated via the liver and its putative metabolites are not active. ⋯ Further prospective studies are necessary with more precise measurement of neuromuscular function to confirm the predictive value of this method. Alterations in neuromuscular blocker plasma concentrations that are correlated with changes in liver function and either the dose required or the intensity or duration of paralysis needs to be demonstrated for this technique to be clinically useful.
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Review Case Reports
Hypermagnesemia-induced cardiopulmonary arrest before induction of anesthesia for emergency cesarean section.
We describe a 42-yr-old woman scheduled for emergency cesarean section who had sudden cardiopulmonary arrest just before induction of general anesthesia. Hypermagnesemia, caused by accidental overdose of magnesium sulfate during transportation to the operating room, was the primary cause of this life-threatening event. Anesthetic management after such events and a brief summary of the literature regarding iatrogenic hypermagnesemia in obsteric patients are provided.