Anaesthesia
-
Controlled Clinical Trial
Effect of an anaesthesia department led critical care outreach and acute pain service on postoperative serious adverse events.
We examined whether a combined critical care outreach and acute pain service comprising both medical and nursing staff from the Department of Anaesthesia would decrease the incidence of postoperative serious adverse events in a hospital with an established Medical Emergency Team. We called this combined service ⋯ Inpatient Management of acute Pain and Advice on Clinical Treatment. We conducted a prospective, before-and-after trial with a baseline phase (319 patients) of standard acute pain management followed by the IMPACT phase (271 patients), during which the IMPACT team systematically reviewed high-risk postoperative patients for the first three days after their return to the general wards. The incidence of serious adverse events decreased from 23 events per 100 patients to 16 events per 100 patients. The 30-day mortality decreased from 9% to 3%, p = 0.004. An acute pain service providing critical care outreach may improve postoperative outcome but the workload is considerable.
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
Anchoring of the internal jugular vein with a pilot needle to facilitate its puncture with a wide bore needle: a randomised, prospective, clinical study.
In this prospective, randomised study, consented adult patients of both genders were divided into two groups. In group 1 (n = 79) patients, during internal jugular vein cannulation, the pilot needle was removed before the wide bore needle (18G) puncture. In group 2 (n = 78) patients, the internal jugular vein was anchored by leaving the pilot needle in place during wide bore needle puncture. ⋯ Internal jugular vein puncture was more frequently detected at the entry of the needle with anchoring (group 2: 78%) than without (group 1: 53%); p < 0.05. Ultrasonography of a further 30 internal jugular vein punctures in each group demonstrated that the anchoring manoeuvre (group 2b) significantly (p < 0.05) prevented an indenting effect of the puncture needle, with a higher vertical to horizontal diameter ratio of the internal jugular vein when there was anchoring (0.97; SD 0.004) than without pilot needle anchoring (0.65; SD 0.008). In conclusion, when using surface landmarks, anchoring of the internal jugular vein with the pilot needle facilitated its puncture.
-
We assessed the use of intravenous remifentanil for the insertion of the laryngeal mask airway in 10 healthy awake volunteers, a technique primarily developed to facilitate functional magnetic resonance imaging studies of anaesthesia. Each volunteer received 200 microg glycopyrronium intravenously. Topical airway anaesthesia was effected by 4 ml nebulised lidocaine 4%, followed by 12 sprays of lidocaine 10%. ⋯ All volunteers were co-operative during the procedure and only one reported discomfort. Sore throat was a complication in all volunteers. We conclude that the technique allows successful insertion of the laryngeal mask airway in healthy awake volunteers under conditions that were safe and reproducible.