Anaesthesia
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
A comparative study of the incidence of sore throat with the laryngeal mask airway.
In a prospective study of 150 patients randomly assigned to three groups, we have compared the incidence and duration of sore throat after a standard anaesthetic regimen using three different methods of airway management: facemask; laryngeal mask, and laryngeal mask with insertion aid. The insertion aid is currently being developed by Portex Ltd and is intended both to facilitate accurate placement of the laryngeal mask and to reduce trauma during insertion. ⋯ When using the insertion aid the incidence was 18% and this was not statistically different from the facemask. The presence of blood on the laryngeal mask (22%) was less likely when the insertion aid was used (4%) (p < 0.02).
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Case Reports
Cerebrospinal fluid cutaneous fistula. An unusual complication of epidural anaesthesia.
We describe two cases of cerebrospinal fluid-cutaneous fistula following epidural anaesthesia used for postoperative pain relief. In each case spinal headache occurred only after removal of the catheters and both patients were treated successfully with autologous blood patches.
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The position adopted during sleep by 52 pregnant women and 31 age-matched nonpregnant control subjects was studied. The pregnant group were all beyond the 30th week of gestation. In the pregnant group, 40 (77%) adopted a left tilt, 11 (21%) a right tilt and one (2%) was supine. ⋯ Closer analysis of the position adopted by the pregnant group showed: 33 adopted a full left 90 degrees tilt, five a left 60 degrees tilt, two a left 30 degrees tilt, 11 adopted a full 90 degrees right tilt and only one was supine. There was a significant difference between the sleeping positions of the pregnant and the control groups (p < 0.001). The majority of the pregnant group adopted a sleeping position that reduced the likelihood of aortocaval compression syndrome.