Current opinion in anaesthesiology
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Curr Opin Anaesthesiol · Jun 2019
ReviewAnesthesia and analgesia for transvaginal oocyte retrieval. Should we recommend or avoid any anesthetic drug or technique?
The objective of this review is to analyze and summarize the current anesthetic methods used to alleviate pain and discomfort during transvaginal oocyte retrieval procedures (TORP), to try to reach practical recommendations, based on the evidence, which will translate into daily practice, the knowledge on the anesthetic management of patients scheduled for TORP. ⋯ TORP is painful for women and different techniques may be used for pain relief in day case surgery. The other important outcome to consider is the pregnancy rate, and any anesthetic technique or drug which would improve this pregnancy rate should be recommended. Conscious sedation and general anesthesia proved to be well tolerated for woman and the oocytes, despite the use of propofol, opioids, benzodiacepines, nitrous oxide, or other drugs. Spinal anesthesia and paracervical block are also acceptable options, and can be combined with conscious sedation. Nevertheless, more studies are needed to find out the ideal drug or technique combination for the woman and the oocyte.
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Curr Opin Anaesthesiol · Jun 2019
ReviewThe microbiome: implications for perioperative and critical care.
The host-microbiota relationship is integral in human health and can be rapidly disrupted in ways that may contribute to poor recovery from surgery or acute illness. We review key studies by organ system to understand the effect of perioperative and critical illness stress on the microbiota. Throughout the review, our focus is on potential interventions that may be mediated by the microbiome. ⋯ The microbiome is likely to play an important role in the perioperative and ICU setting but existing data is largely descriptive. There is an expanding number of mechanistic studies that attempt to disentangle the complicated bi-directional relationship between the host and the resident microbiota. When these results are combined with ongoing clinical studies, we should be able to offer better therapies aimed at restoring the microbiota in the future.
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Curr Opin Anaesthesiol · Jun 2019
ReviewThe patient with hypertension and new guidelines for therapy.
Hypertension is a leading disease in preoperative clinics; nearly 60% of patients over 60 years have it. Many guidelines have been published for the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension. Last year, the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association and European Society of Cardiology and European Society of Hypertension made new recommendations for diagnosis and management, with special emphasis on targets, nonpharmacological treatment, and management of the elderly patient, and pharmacological therapy. We will review relevant concordances and differences that are important for the anesthesiologist and perioperative management. ⋯ New guidelines could increase the burden of patients with pharmacological treatment that will need surgery and require case by case considerations. The scarcity of information demands trials about blood pressure management and consensus about antihypertensive medications in perioperative period.
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With new medical technologies and changing life styles, maternal demographics has changes and consequently older and sicker women are becoming pregnant.In this review, we present these different high-risk parturient populations, which were once considered rare for the practicing obstetric anesthesiologist. ⋯ Future research and implementation of international guidelines for management of these high-risk parturient population is necessary in order to reduce maternal and neonatal morbidity.
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Curr Opin Anaesthesiol · Jun 2019
Reducing breakthrough pain during labour epidural analgesia: an update.
Neuraxial techniques are the current gold standard for labour analgesia, but are associated with up to 25% incidence of breakthrough pain. In this review, we aim to update clinicians on the latest research pertaining to the optimization of neuraxial labour analgesia. ⋯ Recent advances in combined spinal epidural, DPE, automated mandatory bolus, and individualized therapies have advanced our goal of providing effective labour analgesia that is titrated to changing analgesic requirements during labour and delivery and reducing breakthrough pain.