Articles: general-anesthesia.
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Review Meta Analysis
Intravenous lidocaine to prevent postoperative airway complications in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Cough: why care?
Although often minor, common post-operative complications have by definition a broad impact on the perioperative experience. Some common complications, such as coughing on extubation, can also have significant surgical consequences such as for neurosurgical or ophthalmic procedures.
Both coughing on extubation (reported incidence 15-94%) and post-operative sore throat (21-72%) are very common among surgical patients.
What did they do?
Yang and team performed a high-quality meta-analysis of RCTs investigating the effect of intravenous lidocaine/lignocaine on coughing at extubation. Many of these trials also looked at further secondary effects, such as post-operative sore throat. They included 16 trials, totalling 1,516 subjects. Although the trials demonstrated significant heterogeneity, subgroup analyses still confirmed the study's findings.
And they found...
There was significant reduction in cough RR 0.64 (0.48-0.86 & NNT=5), and post-operative sore throat RR 0.46 (0.32-0.67), though no difference in laryngospasm, adverse events or time to extubation with modern volatile agents.
Analysing various lidocaine timings (pre-operative vs intra-operative) and dose ranges (low <1.5mg/kg or high >1.5 mg/kg) yielded no evidence of clear advantage. Nonetheless the findings are consistent with previous reviews, such as from Clivio et al. (2019) showing lidocaine 1.5 mg/kg reduced cough (RR: 0.44; 0.33–0.58), and that the effect is probably dose responsive.
Ok, but how does lidocaine work?
The mechanism of action reducing cough is not understood, although several possibilities have been proposed, including...
"...the suppression of airway sensory C fibres, the reduction of neural discharge of peripheral nerve fibres, and the selective depression of pain transmission in the spinal cord."
Bottom-line
Peri-operative intravenous lignocaine effectively reduces coughing on extubation and reduces post-operative sore throat, without any increase in adverse events.
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Mar 2020
ReviewHandling Section Editor: Prof Brian Anderson Volatiles or TIVA: which is the standard of care for Paediatric Airway Procedures? A Pro-Con Discussion.
Anesthesia for pediatric airway procedures constitutes a true art form that requires training and experience. Communication between anesthetist and surgeon to establish procedure goals is essential in determining the most appropriate anesthetic management. ⋯ Ongoing debates abound as to the advantages and disadvantages of volatile-based anesthesia versus TIVA. This pro-con discussion examines both volatiles and TIVA, from the perspective of effectiveness, safety, cost, and environmental impact, in an endeavor to justify which technique is the best specifically for pediatric airway procedures.
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Rodent models suggest that there are sex-differences in anaesthesia-induced development neurotoxicity.
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Pressure injuries (PIs) after surgery affect thousands of people worldwide. Their management is expensive, a cost that can be reduced with proper preventive measures. Patients having surgery under general anaesthesia are at risk of developing PI, yet no specific tool has been developed to assess the risk in these patients. This review aimed to summarize the published data on perioperative risk factors associated with the development of PI in adults having surgery under general anaesthesia. ⋯ Cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, diabetes mellitus, anaemia and duration of surgery should be taken into consideration when trying to identify surgical patients at high risk of developing PIs. These factors could be used to predict PIs after surgery.
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Mar 2020
ReviewPediatric syndromes with non-craniofacial anomalies impacting the airways.
Syndromes with noncraniofacial abnormalities can be a real challenge in terms of airway management. The key to success is effective preparation, presence of personnel with expertise in difficult pediatric airway management, regular training and familiarity with difficult intubation equipment, and teamwork. Considering that there are a very large number of syndromes, with variable phenotypic expression, the management strategy of every case will be dictated by the anatomical and functional airway as assessed on physical examination and subsidiary examinations before induction of anesthesia.