Articles: general-anesthesia.
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Anasth Intensivther Notfallmed · Feb 1989
[The use of pulse oximetry in detecting disorders of the arterial oxygen status in the immediate postoperative phase exemplified by combination anesthesia with isoflurane].
Adequate respiratory monitoring should immediately indicate deteriorations of arterial oxygen status, e.g. hypoxia (paO2-decrease [mmHg]), hypoxaemia (caO2-decrease [ml/dl]) and hypoxygenation (saO2-decrease [%]). These alterations have been detected in the early postanaesthetic period only by the classical clinical criterias cyanosis and tachycardia. Therefore, O2-application often is recommended for the first 10 min postoperatively. ⋯ With respect to the limitations of the method (measurement of arterial O2-saturation in peripheral circulation using pulse wave as an inflow indicator of arterial blood into the capillary bed; increased Hb-derivative concentrations, e.g. COHb), pulse oximetry for estimation of partial O2-saturation (psO2) seems to be the respiratory monitoring of choice in the early postoperative period. In that sense it is superior to pO2 but inferior to saO2 and caO2.
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Anasth Intensivther Notfallmed · Feb 1989
[Noninvasive monitoring of gas exchange: methodologic prerequisites and clinical use].
The noninvasive determination of the respiratory gas exchange (measurement of oxygen uptake and carbon dioxide delivery) permits the calculation of cardiac output by Fick principle and of the actual energy requirement of the patient (indirect calorimetry). A system is presented for the continuous measurement of oxygen uptake and carbon dioxide delivery, that bases on simple components, which are available on most intensive care units. ⋯ The results reveal, that 4.4 hours after ECC the metabolic rate is close to the calculated basic metabolic rate. They demonstrate the importance of indirect calorimetry as a future bedside monitoring routine.
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Review Case Reports
Fetal surgery and general anesthesia: a case report and review.
Fetal surgery, in utero, is now a viable option for some congenital conditions due to recent advances in ultrasound and microsurgical technology. Previous reports of anesthesia for such procedures have focused on spinal or epidural conduction techniques. ⋯ In addition to maternal anesthesia, general anesthesia can provide fetal neuromuscular block (without direct fetal injection of blocking agents) and uterine relaxation. It may also blunt fetal response to surgical stimulation.
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Comparative Study
Regional versus general anesthesia in high-risk surgical patients: the need for a clinical trial.
Regional anesthesia is often preferred over general anesthesia for patients with cardiovascular disease because of presumed decreased risk of perioperative myocardial ischemia. However, few studies have addressed this issue directly. To determine whether the type of anesthesia is independently associated with myocardial ischemia, records of 134 patients undergoing peripheral vascular grafting under general or regional anesthesia were examined. ⋯ The association between anesthetic approach and perioperative myocardial ischemia or infarction remained after adjustment for preoperative factors associated with ischemia or with type of anesthesia. General anesthesia does not appear to be associated with increased risk of myocardial ischemia, and stringent recommendations to avoid it in this population may be unfounded. A clinical trial is needed to define more clearly the risks and benefits of different types of anesthesia in high-risk patients.
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Various medications have been reported to decrease gastric content volume and thus risk for pulmonary aspiration. The majority of studies have used blind gastric tube aspiration of stomach contents as the method of measuring the volume of gastric contents. This study evaluated the accuracy of this method by first measuring gastric content volume using blind gastric aspiration and then aspirating residual content in the stomach, using a visually guided flexible fiberoptic gastroscope. ⋯ The blind aspirate volume underestimated true total gastric volume by an average of 14.7 ml and was significantly different from true total gastric volume (p less than 0.05). Blind gastric aspiration was thus demonstrated only to approximate true gastric volume. Its use to measure precisely gastric volume cannot, therefore, be recommended.