British journal of anaesthesia
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Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical Trial
Continuous infusion of mivacurium in children.
Mivacurium is a new short-acting competitive neuromuscular blocking agent. Infusion requirements for the maintenance of a stable 90-99% muscle twitch depression were determined in 28 children anaesthetized with nitrous oxide and 1% halothane (inspired) in oxygen or nitrous oxide in oxygen and opioid. Neuromuscular block was assessed by monitoring the force of contraction of the adductor of the thumb during train-of-four (TOF) stimulation at 0.1 Hz. ⋯ There was no significant correlation between infusion rates required to maintain greater than 90% depression of the first twitch (T1) of the TOF and plasma cholinesterase concentrations. Regardless of the anaesthetic regimen, children recovered rapidly after discontinuing the infusion. The recovery index (25-75% recovery of T1) for all patients was 5.4 (0.57) min with no significant differences between the groups.
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A questionnaire was mailed to 182 attendees of four practical workshops on fibreoptic endoscopy. After the workshops, 35% of the attendees were able to introduce fibreoptic intubation into their clinical practice or improve their success rate. This suggests that a new psychomotor skill can be disseminated effectively to clinicians by a practical workshop that utilizes inanimate models, and is based on sound educational principles.
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A 55-yr-old man received a left supraclavicular brachial plexus block with 0.42% bupivacaine; he had profound motor and sensory block 26 h after injection; complete recovery occurred at 40 h.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Postoperative analgesia with extradural clonidine.
The analgesic effect of extradural clonidine was evaluated in a double-blind study. In the recovery room, following orthopaedic or perineal surgery 20 ASA I and II patients were allocated randomly to two groups. The extradural clonidine (EC) group received clonidine 2 micrograms kg-1 in isotonic saline solution 15 micrograms ml-1. ⋯ In the EC group, the mean (SD) maximum pain relief was 68.2 (24.1)% of the initial VAS score, but it was only 14.7 (25.2)% in the ES group. The mean duration of analgesia, before injection of morphine, was significantly longer in the EC group (210 (87) min) compared with the ES group (45 (27) min) (P less than 0.001). Drowsiness and moderate hypotension were observed in the EC group.
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To quantify the neuromuscular blocking effect of vecuronium on the diaphragm and the adductor pollicis, single twitch stimuli were applied to the phrenic nerves at the neck and the ulnar nerve at the wrist in anaesthetized patients. The evoked responses were measured simultaneously by recording the transdiaphragmatic pressure with a differential pressure transducer and the adductor pollicis strength with a force displacement transducer. ⋯ The mean (SD) doses required to depress adductor pollicis and diaphragm responses to 50% (ED50) were 30 (9) micrograms kg-1 and 37 (12) micrograms kg-1, respectively. Corresponding values for 95% depression of the twitch response (ED95) were 48 (13) micrograms kg-1 and 67 (23) micrograms kg-1 (P less than 0.02), indicating that the diaphragm required approximately 40% more vecuronium for subtotal abolition of the single twitch response.