Minerva anestesiologica
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Minerva anestesiologica · Aug 2014
ReviewSedation after cardiac arrest and during therapeutic hypothermia.
Mild therapeutic hypothermia (MTH) has improved neurological outcome of comatose patients after cardiac arrest (CA). Since the first clinical studies performed in this setting, sedation has always been associated with cooling procedures. The use of sedative drugs during MTH is required because it allows faster achievement and better maintenance of target temperature. ⋯ No differences in clinical outcomes have been found among different drugs, except for those related to their intrinsic pharmacological properties: the association propofol/remifentanil provides a faster recovery of consciousness than midazolam/fentanyl but is associated with the need of more vasopressors to maintain stable hemodynamic. Moreover, pharmacokinetic properties of these drugs are often altered during MTH so that standard drug regimens could result in overdosing because of reduced clearance. Neuromonitoring could be helpful to titrate drugs' effects and detect earlier complications (i.e. seizure), while a wake-up test should be avoided during the first 24 hours after CA.
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Minerva anestesiologica · Aug 2014
Effects of intracisternal tramadol on Cerebral and spinal neuronal cells in rat.
The aim was to investigate whether tramadol had toxic effect on cerebral neurons and/or spinal cord neurons when it was administered into the cerebrospinal fluid. Due to lipid peroxidation (LPO) and myeloperoxidation (MPO) levels are not specific predictors of neuronal damage, these biochemical markers of tissue damage were evaluated together with the histopathological findings of apoptosis. ⋯ Tramadol had no neurotoxic effect on brain and on spinal cord tissue when administered by the intracisternal route in cerebrospinal fluid in rats.