Indian journal of anaesthesia
-
Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is a major cause of hospital morbidity and mortality despite recent advances in diagnosis and accuracy of management. However, as taught in medical science, prevention is better than cure is probably more appropriate as concerned to VAP because of the fact that it is a well preventable disease and a proper approach decreases the hospital stay, cost, morbidity and mortality. The aim of the study is to critically review the incidence and outcome, identify various risk factors and conclude specific measures that should be undertaken to prevent VAP. ⋯ The mortality of patients of the non-VAP group was found to be 41% while that of VAP patients was 54%. Targeted strategies aimed at preventing VAP should be implemented to improve patient outcome and reduce length of intensive care unit stay and costs. Above all, everyone of the critical care unit should understand the factors that place the patients at risk of VAP and utmost importance must be given to prevent VAP.
-
Intensive care unit (ICU) monitors have alarm options to intimate the staff of critical incidents but these alarms needs to be adjusted in every patient. With this objective in mind, this study was done among resident doctors, with the aim of assessing the existing attitude among resident doctors towards ICU alarm settings. This study was conducted among residents working at ICU of a multispeciality centre, with the help of a printed questionnaire. ⋯ The initial response to an alarm among all the residents was to disable the alarm temporarily and try to look for a cause. 92% of PGs and 98% of SRs were aware of alarms priority and colour coding. 55% residents believed that the alarm occurred due to patient disturbance, 15% believed that alarm was due to technical problem with monitor/sensor and 30% thought it was truly related to patient's clinical status. 82% residents set the alarms by themselves, 10% believed that alarms should be adjusted by nurse, 4% believed the technical staff should take responsibility of setting alarm limits and 4% believed that alarm levels should be pre-adjusted by the manufacturer. We conclude that although alarms are an important, indispensable, and lifesaving feature, they can be a nuisance and can compromise quality and safety of care by frequent false positive alarms. We should be familiar of the alarm modes, check and reset the alarm settings at regular interval or after a change in clinical status of the patient.
-
Stellate ganglion block (STGB) is commonly indicated in painful conditions like reflex sympathetic dystrophy, malignancies of head and neck, Reynaud's disease and vascular insufficiency of the upper limbs. The sympathetic blockade helps to relieve pain and ischaemia. Diagnostic STGB is usually performed with local anaesthetics followed by therapeutic blockade with steroids, neurolytic agents or radiofrequency ablation of ganglion. ⋯ STGB was given for 2 days with 2 ml of 2% lignocaine + 8 ml of 0.25% bupivacaine, followed by block with the addition of 0.5 mg/kg of ketamine for three consecutive days. There was significant pain relief of longer duration with significant rise in hand temperature. We also observed complete healing of the gangrenous fingers in 17/19 patients.
-
We compared the effects of clonidine added to bupivacaine with bupivacaine alone on supraclavicular brachial plexus block and observed the side-effects of both the groups. In this prospective, randomized, double-blinded, controlled trial, two groups of 25 patients each were investigated using (i) 40 ml of bupivacaine 0.25% plus 0.150 mg of clonidine and (ii) 40 ml of bupivacaine 0.25% plus 1 ml of NaCl 0.9, respectively. ⋯ It was observed that addition of clonidine to bupivacaine resulted in faster onset of sensory block, longer duration of analgesia (as assessed by visual analogue score), prolongation of the motor block (as assessed by modified Lovett Rating Scale), prolongation of the duration of recovery of sensation and no association with any haemodynamic changes (heart rate and blood pressure), sedation or any other adverse effects. These findings suggest that clonidine added to bupivacaine is an attractive option for improving the quality and duration of supraclavicular brachial plexus block in upper limb surgeries.
-
The purpose of this article is to review the fundamental aspects of obesity, pregnancy and a combination of both. The scientific aim is to understand the physiological changes, pathological clinical presentations and application of technical skills and pharmacological knowledge on this unique clinical condition. The goal of this presentation is to define the difficult airway, highlight the main reasons for difficult or failed intubation and propose a practical approach to management Throughout the review, an important component is the necessity for team work between the anaesthesiologist and the obstetrician. Certain protocols are recommended to meet the anaesthetic challenges and finally concluding with "what is new?" in obstetric anaesthesia.