Regional anesthesia and pain medicine
-
Reg Anesth Pain Med · Jan 2012
Comparative StudyBeyond repeated-measures analysis of variance: advanced statistical methods for the analysis of longitudinal data in anesthesia research.
Research in the field of anesthesiology relies heavily on longitudinal designs for answering questions about long-term efficacy and safety of various anesthetic and pain regimens. Yet, anesthesiology research is lagging in the use of advanced statistical methods for analyzing longitudinal data. The goal of this article was to increase awareness of the advantages of modern statistical methods and promote their use in anesthesia research. ⋯ Based on their advantages over RM-ANOVA, GEE and MEM should be strongly considered for the analysis of longitudinal data. In particular, GEE should be used to explore overall average effects, and MEM should be used when subject-specific effects (in addition to overall average effects) are of primary interest.
-
Reg Anesth Pain Med · Jan 2012
ReviewBeyond opioid patient-controlled analgesia: a systematic review of analgesia after major spine surgery.
Postoperative pain control in patients undergoing spine surgery remains a challenge for the anesthesiologist. In addition to incisional pain, these patients experience pain arising from deeper tissues such as bones, ligaments, muscles, intervertebral disks, facet joints, and damaged nerve roots. ⋯ The problem is compounded by the fact that many of these patients are either opioid dependent or opioid tolerant, making them less responsive to the most commonly used therapy for postoperative pain (opioid-based intermittent or patient-controlled analgesia). The purpose of this review was to compare all published treatment options available that go beyond intravenous opiates and attempt to find the best possible treatment modality.
-
Reg Anesth Pain Med · Jan 2012
Randomized Controlled TrialASRA checklist improves trainee performance during a simulated episode of local anesthetic systemic toxicity.
Severe local anesthetic systemic toxicity (LAST) is a rare event, the management of which might best be learned using high-fidelity simulation. In its 2010 Practice Advisory, the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA) created a medical checklist to aid in the management of LAST. We hypothesized that trainees provided with this checklist would manage a simulated episode of LAST more effectively than those without it. A secondary aim of the study was to assess the ASRA Checklist's usability and readability. ⋯ Use of the ASRA Checklist significantly improved the trainees' medical management and nontechnical performance during a simulated episode of severe LAST. Partial use of the checklist correlated with lower overall performance.
-
Reg Anesth Pain Med · Jan 2012
Comparative StudyOptical detection of vascular penetration during nerve blocks: an in vivo human study.
Complications resulting from vascular penetration during nerve blocks are rare but potentially devastating events that can occur despite meticulous technique. In this in vivo human pilot study, we investigated the potential for detecting vascular penetration with optical reflectance spectroscopy during blocks of the sympathetic chain and the communicating ramus at lumbar levels. ⋯ The results from this study suggest that optical spectroscopy has the potential to detect intravascular needle placement, which may in turn increase the safety of nerve blocks.
-
Reg Anesth Pain Med · Jan 2012
Three partial-task simulators for teaching ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia.
Simulation-based training is becoming an accepted tool for educating physicians before direct patient care. As ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia (UGRA) becomes a popular method for performing regional blocks, there is a need for learning the technical skills associated with the technique. Although simulator models do exist for learning UGRA, they either contain food and are therefore perishable or are not anatomically based. We developed 3 sonoanatomically based partial-task simulators for learning UGRA: an upper body torso for learning UGRA interscalene and infraclavicular nerve blocks, a femoral manikin for learning UGRA femoral nerve blocks, and a leg model for learning UGRA sciatic nerve blocks in the subgluteal and popliteal areas.