Current opinion in anaesthesiology
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Anaesthesia and sedation are ubiquitous in contemporary medical practice. Developments in anaesthetic pharmacology are targeted on reducing physiological disturbance whilst maintaining or improving titrateability, recovery profile and patient experience. Remimazolam is a new short-acting benzodiazepine in the final stages of clinical development. ⋯ Remimazolam provides effective procedural sedation with superior success rates and recovery profile when compared to midazolam. Comparisons with propofol are required. Preliminary studies suggest potential for using remimazolam as the hypnotic component of general anaesthesia. Definitive studies are awaited. As a benzodiazepine, remimazolam could be evaluated as an anticonvulsant and for intensive care sedation.
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Curr Opin Anaesthesiol · Aug 2020
ReviewTerminology, communication, and information systems in nonoperating room anaesthesia in the COVID-19 era.
Nonoperating room anaesthesia (NORA) is a rapidly growing and important area of anaesthesia care. We would contend that anaesthesia informatics principles and innovations that have been widely applied in numerous diverse domains could be successfully applied in NORA environments, resulting in significant improvements in anaesthesia care delivery. ⋯ There is significant opportunity for anaesthesiologists and clinical informaticians to collaborate and apply major advances in the perioperative informatics field to NORA environments, particularly given rapid recent changes in the field during the COVID-19 epidemic. Given the complexity of NORA patients and care delivered in NORA environments, applied clinical informatics has the potential to drastically improve care delivered.
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Curr Opin Anaesthesiol · Aug 2020
ReviewThe anesthesiologist and global climate change: an ethical obligation to act.
Pollution and global warming/climate change contribute to one-quarter of all deaths worldwide. Global healthcare as a whole is the world's fifth largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and anesthetic gases, intravenous agents and supplies contribute significantly to the overall problem. It is the ethical obligation of all anesthesiologists to minimize the harmful impact of anesthesia practice on environmental sustainability. ⋯ The 5 R's of waste minimization in the operating room (OR) (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rethink and Research) have proven benefit in reducing the environmental impact of the practice of anesthesiology, as well as in reducing costs.
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Curr Opin Anaesthesiol · Aug 2020
ReviewRisk stratification in patients undergoing nonoperating room anesthesia.
A growing numerical and complexity of patients requiring nonoperating room anesthesia (NORA) necessitates a multidisciplinary approach of a highly experienced team in a highly technological setting of the cathlab or radiology suite. These requirements are even more magnified in the context of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. ⋯ Apart from a thorough preoperative assessment, preventive strategies and well-chosen monitoring should be implemented to preclude inadvertent events in sometimes high-risk patients. Timely preventive measures and early recognition of complications could only be achieved by a multidisciplinary cooperating team. In addition, the implementation of safety measurements due to the infectious transmission to both the patients and care givers is crucial.
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The present review provides an overview of the different fields of procedural sedation and analgesia (PSA), describing the evidence from recently published studies concerning anxiety and moderate pain, cardiac interventions, gastrointestinal interventions, and PSA use in infants. It also provides guidance for practitioners of both unscheduled and scheduled procedural sedation, and a summary of the current guideline for PSA. ⋯ Procedural sedation deserves to have high degree of attention for potential adverse events. New combinations of well established drugs provide a better pharmacokinetic profile, fit to different indications and offer multiple benefits for both provider and patient.