British journal of anaesthesia
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The aim of this study was to assess the predictive performance of 'Servin's formula' for bispectral index (BIS)-guided propofol-remifentanil target-controlled infusion (TCI) in morbidly obese patients. ⋯ Significant bias between predicted and measured plasma propofol concentrations was found while the low wobble values suggest that propofol TCI system is able to maintain stable drug concentrations over time. As already suggested before, a computer simulation confirmed that the TCI system performance could be significantly improved when total body weight is used.
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Clinical Trial
Analgesia with sevoflurane during labour: i. Determination of the optimum concentration.
Sevoflurane has favourable physical qualities for inhaled analgesia during labour pain. The aim of this preliminary study was to identify its optimum concentration. ⋯ We concluded that the optimal sevoflurane concentration in labour was 0.8%. This concentration allows a safety margin and balances the risk of sedation with the benefit of pain relief in labour.
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Several medications have proved to be useful in preventing postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV). However, routine antiemetic prophylaxis is not cost-effective. We evaluated the accuracy and discriminating power of an artificial neural network (ANN) to predict PONV. ⋯ The ANN provided the best predictive performance among all tested models.
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We investigated how often blind placement of peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) through the antecubital veins results in a correct tip location in relation to carina and evaluated the inter-observer agreement in locating the tip of PICCs in plain radiography with digital imaging. ⋯ Right antecubital PICCs are more likely to be placed in the central location in relation to the carina. PICCs inserted through the left antecubital veins need to be pushed further down to aim for a central location. Inter-observer variability in identifying the tip of PICCs is least with the introduction of digital imaging.