British journal of anaesthesia
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The transport of the seriously injured patient is associated with risk and requires particular expertise and attention. The aim of this review is to provide a historical overview of transport services available to trauma patients in the UK, describe the various transport platforms that are used, identify risks from a system and disease perspective and how they may be mitigated, and make international comparisons. The transfer of patients requiring medical attention has developed over the years and now includes complex undertakings that undoubtedly confer a degree of risk on the patient. ⋯ When deciding to transport an injured patient, there are risks, and appropriate mitigation must be in place, particularly if primary transfer to a major trauma centre involves bypassing a nearer facility. It is clear that those clinicians who undertake medical transfers must be appropriately trained and must have access to local or national guidelines. Medical transfers must be the subject of ongoing research, both to ensure that best practice is in place and to continue to understand the safest way of achieving essential transfers effectively.
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Review Meta Analysis
Benefits and risks of epidural analgesia in cardiac surgery†.
Epidural analgesia reduces all-cause mortality after cardiac surgery, at the cost of a 1 in 3,500 risk of epidural hematoma.
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Review
'Fit to fly': overcoming barriers to preoperative haemoglobin optimization in surgical patients†.
In major surgery, the implementation of multidisciplinary, multimodal and individualized strategies, collectively termed Patient Blood Management, aims to identify modifiable risks and optimise patients' own physiology with the ultimate goal of improving outcomes. Among the various strategies utilized in Patient Blood Management, timely detection and management of preoperative anaemia is most important, as it is in itself a risk factor for worse clinical outcome, but also one of the strongest predisposing factors for perioperative allogeneic blood transfusion, which in turn increases postoperative morbidity, mortality and costs. ⋯ We have reviewed a number of these misconceptions, which we unanimously consider should be promptly abandoned by health care providers and replaced by evidence-based strategies such as detection, diagnosis and proper treatment of preoperative anaemia. We believe that this approach to preoperative anaemia management may be a viable, cost-effective strategy that is beneficial both for patients, with improved clinical outcomes, and for health systems, with more efficient use of finite health care resources.
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Intraoperative awareness, with or without recall, continues to be a topic of clinical significance and neurobiological interest. In this article, we review evidence pertaining to the incidence, sequelae, and prevention of intraoperative awareness. We also assess which aspects of the complication are well understood (i.e. non-controversial) and which require further research for clarification (i.e. controversial).
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As opposed to conscious, personally relevant (explicit) memories that we can recall at will, implicit (unconscious) memories are prototypical of 'hidden' memory; memories that exist, but that we do not know we possess. Nevertheless, our behaviour can be affected by these memories; in fact, these memories allow us to function in an ever-changing world. It is still unclear from behavioural studies whether similar memories can be formed during anaesthesia. ⋯ Function of sensory cortices and thalamic activity during anaesthesia are reviewed. The role of sensory and perisensory cortices, in particular the auditory cortex, in support of memory function is discussed. Although improbable, with the current knowledge of neurophysiology one cannot rule out the possibility of memory formation during anaesthesia.