British journal of anaesthesia
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Prehabilitation comprises multidisciplinary healthcare interventions, including exercise, nutritional optimisation, and psychological preparation, which aim to dampen the metabolic response to surgery, shorten the period of recovery, reduce complications, and improve the quality of recovery and quality of life. This editorial evaluates the potential benefits and limitations of and barriers to prehabilitation in surgical patients. The results of several randomised clinical trials and meta-analyses on prehabilitation show differing results, and the strength of the evidence is relatively weak. ⋯ Evidence could be strengthened by the conduct of large-scale, appropriately powered multicentre trials that have unequivocal clinically relevant and patient-centric endpoints. Studies on prehabilitation should concentrate on recruiting patients who are frail and at high risk. Interventions should be multimodal and exercise regimens should be tailored to each patient's ability with longitudinal measurements of impact.
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In 2020, the Sugammadex vs Neostigmine for Reversal of Neuromuscular Blockade and Postoperative Pulmonary Complications (STRONGER) study provided evidence for the first time that use of sugammadex is associated with fewer postoperative pulmonary complications than use of neostigmine. In a recent publication in the British Journal of Anaesthesia, a secondary analysis of the same data, the Association Between Neuromuscular Blockade Reversal Agent Choice and Postoperative Pulmonary Complications (STIL-STRONGER) study, has produced similar evidence of the advantages of sugammadex over neostigmine in high-risk and older patients undergoing prolonged, elective surgery. Here we consider the implications of the detailed statistical analysis used in these two studies and how its limitations could possibly have enhanced the statistical differences between the two drugs with respect to postoperative pulmonary complications.
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Patient-ventilator asynchrony during mechanical ventilation may exacerbate lung and diaphragm injury in spontaneously breathing subjects. We investigated whether subject-ventilator asynchrony increases lung or diaphragmatic injury in a porcine model of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). ⋯ Subject-ventilator asynchrony during spontaneous breathing did not exacerbate lung injury and dysfunction in experimental porcine ARDS.
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We investigated the influence of different neuromuscular blocking agents and reversal agents during anaesthesia on early removal of chest tube drainage after video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). ⋯ During general anaesthesia for VATS, compared with cisatracurium and neostigmine, use of rocuronium and sugammadex was associated with a significant decrease in the incidence of postoperative delayed removal of the chest tube, atelectasis, and pulmonary consolidation.
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Observational Study
Pulmonary artery wave reflection and right ventricular function after lung resection.
Lung resection has been shown to impair right ventricular function. Although conventional measures of afterload do not change, surgical ligation of a pulmonary artery branch, as occurs during lobectomy, can create a unilateral proximal reflection site, increasing wave reflection (pulsatile component of afterload) and diverting blood flow through the contralateral pulmonary artery. We present a cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) observational cohort study of changes in wave reflection and right ventricular function after lung resection. ⋯ NCT01892800.