British journal of anaesthesia
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Pharmacokinetics of tranexamic acid after intravenous, intramuscular, and oral routes: a prospective, randomised, crossover trial in healthy volunteers.
In response to the World Health Organization call for research on alternative routes for tranexamic acid (TXA) administration in women with postpartum haemorrhage, we examined the pharmacokinetics of TXA after i.v., i.m., or oral administration. ⋯ EudraCT 2019-000285-38; NCT03777488.
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This narrative review presents a biological rationale and evidence to describe how the preoperative condition of the patient contributes to postoperative morbidity. Any preoperative condition that prevents a patient from tolerating the physiological stress of surgery (e.g. poor cardiopulmonary reserve, sarcopaenia), impairs the stress response (e.g. malnutrition, frailty), and/or augments the catabolic response to stress (e.g. insulin resistance) is a risk factor for poor surgical outcomes. Prehabilitation interventions that include exercise, nutrition, and psychosocial components can be applied before surgery to strengthen physiological reserve and enhance functional capacity, which, in turn, supports recovery through attaining surgical resilience. Prehabilitation complements Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) care to achieve optimal patient outcomes because recovery is not a passive process and it begins preoperatively.
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Unlike elective lists, full utilisation of an emergency list is undesirable, as it could prevent patient access. Conversely, a perpetually empty emergency theatre is resource wasteful. Separately, measuring delayed access to emergency surgery from time of booking the urgent case is relevant, and could reflect either deficiencies in patient preparation or be because of an occupied (over-utilised) emergency theatre. ⋯ This simple graphical analysis indicates whether more emergency capacity is necessary. We discuss potential applications in managing emergency surgery theatres.
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Days alive and out of hospital (DAOH) is a composite, patient-centred outcome measure describing a patient's postoperative recovery, encompassing hospitalisation and mortality. DAOH is the number of days not in hospital over a defined postoperative period; patients who die have DAOH of zero. The Standardising Endpoints in Perioperative Medicine (StEP) group recommended DAOH as a perioperative outcome. However, DAOH has never been validated in patients undergoing emergency laparotomy. Here, we validate DAOH after emergency laparotomy and establish the optimal duration of observation. ⋯ DAOH is a valid, patient-centred outcome after emergency laparotomy. We recommend its use in clinical trials, quality assurance, and quality improvement, measured at 30 days as mortality heavily skews DAOH measured at 90 days and beyond.