Journal of clinical monitoring and computing
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J Clin Monit Comput · Jun 2023
Associations of an eye-tracking task and pupillary metrics with age and ASA physical status score in a preoperative cohort.
Advanced age, American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status (ASA) classification and the presence of cognitive impairment are associated with an elevated risk of postoperative morbidity and mortality. The visual paired comparison (VPC) task, which relies on recognition of novel images, examines declarative memory. VPC scores have demonstrated the ability to detect mild cognitive impairment and track progression of neurodegenerative disease. ⋯ Our data also revealed an association between VPC score and age (Spearman Rank Correlation, p = 0.0016, r = - 0.21) but not ASA score (Kruskal-Wallis Test, p = 0.14). When compared to a nonsurgical cohort with no history of memory impairment, our population scored worse on the VPC task (Mann-Whitney U Test, p = 0.0002). A preoperative 5 min VPC task and pupillometry are feasible tests in the preoperative setting and may provide a valuable window into an individual's cognition prior to elective surgery.
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J Clin Monit Comput · Jun 2023
Increasing the reflection efficiency of the Sedaconda ACD-S by heating and cooling the anaesthetic reflector: a bench study using a test lung.
As volatile anaesthetic gases contribute to global warming, improving the efficiency of their delivery can reduce their environmental impact. This can be achieved by rebreathing from a circle system, but also by anaesthetic reflection with an open intensive care ventilator. We investigated whether the efficiency of such a reflection system could be increased by warming the reflector during inspiration and cooling it during expiration (thermocycling). ⋯ Thermocycling of the anaesthetic gas considerably increases the efficiency of the anaesthetic reflector and reduces anaesthetic consumption by almost half in a test lung model. Given that cooling can be miniaturized, this method carries a potential for further saving anaesthetics in clinical practice in the operating theatre as well as for inhaled sedation in the ICU.