Current opinion in anaesthesiology
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Curr Opin Anaesthesiol · Aug 2020
ReviewNonoperating room anesthesia in different parts of the world.
Advances in early diagnosis and treatment of diseases using minimally invasive procedures has led to an increase in the number of cases in locations outside the operating room. This surge created the need for anesthesia services to expand to these areas to provide well tolerated and favorable procedural conditions. The present review describes nonoperating room anesthesia patterns in different parts of the world. ⋯ There are marked variations in how anesthesia services are delivered in out of operating room locations in different parts of the world. Although there are some data available from the United States, expansion of minimally invasive procedures across continents will likely lead to the emergence of various models of delivering anesthetic care.
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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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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
ReviewSoft drugs in anesthesia: remifentanil as prototype to modern anesthetic drug development.
The unique demands of modern anesthesia practice require that medications be effective, well tolerated, and efficient. These attributes are increasingly achieved with the soft drug approach, wherein novel active compounds are specifically designed to be susceptible to rapid biotransformation to inactive metabolites. The present review summarizes the historical background and recent trends in soft drug development in anesthesiology. ⋯ With succinylcholine as the historical forerunner and remifentanil as the modern prototype, the soft drug paradigm continues to hold promise for the future of anesthesia drug development.
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The present review provides a summary of the literature on recent development of new neuromuscular blocking agents and presents clinically well established and new reversal agents. ⋯ Although the recent advancements in neuromuscular research are very promising, to date, the presented drugs are currently not available for clinical use. Clinical studies will determine the role of these developments in anesthesia practice. Therefore, well established combinations such as rocuronium-sugammadex are popular in clinical practice to offer quick paralysis for intubation and to optimize surgical conditions, while providing a fast neuromuscular recovery at the end of surgery.