Acta chirurgica Scandinavica. Supplementum
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Acta Chir Scand Suppl · Jan 1989
ReviewThe influence of anesthesia and postoperative analgesic management of lung function.
General anesthesia itself may influence postoperative lung function. It leads to a depression of the functional residual capacity, which, in combination with surgical trauma and postoperative pain, can provoke insufficient breathing, retention of bronchial secretions, and atelectasis. ⋯ After upper abdominal or thoracic surgery, postoperative epidural analgesia causes a significant increase of lung function as compared with systemic analgesia. The combination of regional anesthesia and general anesthesia intraoperatively appears to reduce lung function much less than general anesthesia alone.
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This brief review presents an update of studies on postoperative fatigue and convalescence and the way in which they are affected by anesthetic technique. Development of postoperative fatigue is related to the degree of surgical trauma, but not to general anesthesia, and it cannot be predicted from age, sex, duration of surgery, or preoperative assessment of various nutritional parameters. Postoperative fatigue correlates with deterioration in nutritional status and impaired adaptability of heart rate to orthostatic stress and bicycle exercise. ⋯ Pain relief with regional anesthetics does not improve postoperative fatigue after abdominal surgery; however, no studies are available that evaluate the effects of regional analgesia with concomitant inhibition of the stress response. Controlled studies suggest that the use of regional anesthesia with local anesthetics reduces duration of hospitalization and time to ambulation. Further studies are needed to define the relative roles of immobilization, impaired nutritional intake, and surgical stress response in the pathogenesis of postoperative fatigue.
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Acta Chir Scand Suppl · Jan 1989
Comparative StudyCombined epidural and general anesthesia versus general anesthesia in patients having colon and rectal anastomoses.
Three retrospective studies were conducted at St. Vincent's Hospital to compare the outcomes of colorectal anastomoses, with and without resections, with respect to anesthetic technique. Operations were performed upon patients anesthetized with either combined regional (epidural) and general anesthesia (CRAG) or general anesthesia alone (GA). ⋯ Overall, anastomotic leak rates and death rates were lower in the CRAG group, and the lowest incidence of anastomotic leak was reported in the patients receiving CEA. Thus the reduced leak rate was associated more with the postoperative analgesia regimen than with the anesthetic technique. An increased incidence of wound dehiscence occurred with postoperative epidural morphine analgesia.
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Anesthesia can have various effects on the outcome of surgery, especially gastrointestinal procedures. Many anesthetic agents, for example, produce a fall in lower esophageal sphincter pressure, which can allow reflux of gastric contents into the lower esophagus. ⋯ Anesthetic technique can affect the success of intestinal anastomosis; for example, intravenous induction agents and some inhalational anesthetics decrease regional blood flow, whereas regional anesthetics may act to increase colonic blood flow. Other aspects of anesthetic management are also discussed as they relate to surgical outcome; examples are the use of invasive monitoring in elderly patients, the importance of oxygen delivery to the anastomosis, and the effect of transfusion on survival after surgery for carcinoma.