Anaesthesia
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
The analgesic efficiency of combined pregabalin and ketamine for total hip arthroplasty: a randomised, double-blind, controlled study.
Pregabalin and ketamine given together have a small, additive effect in reducing post-operative pain after total hip arthroplasty.
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A number of recent reports have highlighted the inadequate provision of pain relief for older inpatients. Despite the availability of numerous validated pain measures, pain remains poorly assessed in some cases and, particularly, in the cognitively impaired. ⋯ Most drugs and techniques that are used for analgesia in younger patients are also suitable for older patients, although dosages may have to be adjusted to avoid the side-effects that are consequent upon age-related changes in drug pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, co-morbidity, frailty, cognitive impairment and polypharmacy. This paper reviews current guidelines and methods of assessing pain in the older adult, and describes the use of, and problems with, mild, moderate, strong, adjuvant and local anaesthetic drugs in the older population for analgesia, advocating multimodal intervention to reduce dose-related side-effects, particularly of opioids.
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Outcomes are essential measures of healthcare effectiveness and efficiency. Traditional measures of outcome, such as mortality and length of stay, are important and easy to measure but have significant limitations when evaluating the peri-operative care of elderly patients. ⋯ However, few measurement tools have been developed or validated specifically for the elderly surgical patient. This paper describes the outcome measures currently in use, explores how they might be used to improve the quality of care provision, and indicates priority areas for peri-operative outcomes research in the elderly surgical patients.
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For most surgeons and many anaesthetists, patient frailty is currently the 'elephant in the (operating) room': it is easy to spot, but is often ignored. In this paper, we discuss different approaches to the measurement of frailty and review the evidence regarding the effect of frailty on peri-operative outcomes. We explore the limitations of 'eyeballing' patients to quantify frailty, and consider why the frail older patient, challenged by seemingly minor insults in the postoperative period, may suffer falls or delirium. ⋯ Quantifying frailty is likely to increase the precision of peri-operative risk assessment. The Frailty Index derived from Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment is a simple and robust way to quantify frailty, but is yet to be systematically investigated in the pre-operative setting. Furthermore, the optimal care for frail patients and the reversibility of frailty with prehabilitation are fertile areas for future research.