Anaesthesia
-
Seventy-eight cases of cardiac arrest occurring outside intensive care units and emergency rooms were analysed. 44% of patients were initially resuscitated, and 14% were still alive at 28 days. The previously well documented relationships between survival and location of arrest, age of patient and initial dysrhythmia were confirmed. A diurnal variation in the incidence of cardiac arrest has recently been postulated, but was not noted in this survey. However, the proportion of arrest patients who were initially resuscitated did show a significant fluctuation over the 24-hour period as tested by a sinusoidal logistic regression.
-
A clinical study of the use of intrathecal morphine in two groups of surgical patients, 32 in all, showed that the morphine provided very powerful and prolonged analgesia with little disturbance of cerebral function. When combined with a spinal block it did not interfere with the action of the spinal anaesthetic. ⋯ The depression was sufficient to induce carbon dioxide narcosis in two patients. It is suggested that the dose of intrathecal morphine in the very elderly should be very severely restricted as they appeared to be unduly sensitive to the respiratory depressant effect of morphine when given intrathecally.