Acta anaesthesiologica Belgica
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Acta Anaesthesiol Belg · Jan 1992
Comparative StudyDouble burst stimulation for monitoring profound neuromuscular blockade: a comparison with posttetanic count and train of four.
Double burst stimulation (DBS) is a new nerve stimulation pattern introduced to facilitate tactile evaluation of recovery from neuromuscular blockade. DBS consists of two bursts of high frequency stimulations separated by a short time interval. The relationships between DBS, post-tetanic count (PTC) and train-of-four (TOF) on the evoked twitch response was investigated in 16 surgical patients and 7 intensive care patients given atracurium for muscle relaxation. ⋯ When the first twitch of TOF was still not measurable, the first twitch of DBS ranged from 0 to 20% of the TOF-control twitch height. Furthermore the DBS ratio was significantly correlated to the TOF ratio (r = 0.92-0.96, p < 0.0002). It is concluded that DBS not only can be used for monitoring of recovery from neuromuscular blockade, but also for monitoring of intense degrees of neuromuscular blockade.
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Acta Anaesthesiol Belg · Jan 1992
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialPostoperative analgesia for major abdominal surgery with continuous thoracic epidural infusion of bupivacaine with sufentanil, versus bupivacaine with morphine. A randomized double blind study.
Forty-six patients undergoing major abdominal surgery were given postoperative epidural analgesia for four days with bupivacaine-sufentanil or bupivacaine-morphine. Both groups received a bolus of 8 ml bupivacaine 0.5% followed after 30 minutes by an infusion of 20 ml/h bupivacaine 0.1%. The sufentanil group (group A: 21 patients) received a loading dose of 50 micrograms sufentanil and a continuous infusion of 5 micrograms/h sufentanil. ⋯ There was also a high incidence of hypotension after the loading dose of bupivacaine 0.5%. Although we noticed a large incidence of pruritus, no patient needed naloxone reversal. In view of these side effects we recommend a lower loading dose of both bupivacaine and sufentanil.
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Acta Anaesthesiol Belg · Jan 1992
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialIntraocular pressure changes in response to endotracheal intubation facilitated by atracurium or succinylcholine with or without lidocaine.
Changes in intraocular pressure (IOP) and hemodynamics (SP, DP and HR) were measured in 105 patients ASA I and II randomly assigned into seven equal and comparable groups (A to G) during induction of anesthesia and endotracheal intubation facilitated either by succinylcholine or atracurium with or without lidocaine. IOP decreased significantly (p less than 0.01) after induction of anesthesia with thiopentone in all the groups. While atracurium with or without lidocaine did not affect IOP following complete suppression of train-of-four (groups A, B, and C), succinylcholine per se or in combination with lidocaine (groups F and G) significantly (p less than 0.01) increased IOP after induction with thiopentone but not exceeding the baseline IOP level. ⋯ However, atracurium when used in a rapid sequence intubation could not produce similar intubation conditions when compared with succinylcholine. Consequently, we cannot endorse atracurium as an alternative to succinylcholine for patients with penetrated eye injuries and full stomach requiring rapid sequence intubations. In this context, the role of IV lidocaine in mitigating or preventing the systemic and ocular reactions and especially the acute increase in IOP associated with endotracheal intubation should be emphasized.