Articles: nerve-block.
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Minerva anestesiologica · May 2004
Review[Analgesia, sedation and neuromuscular block in pediatric intensive care units: present procedures and recent progress].
Anxiolysis and pain control are a duty for physicians and must be treated very carefully in the Pediatric Intensive Care Units, although it is very difficult to assess them: in critically ill children sedatives and/or analgesic medications are routinely provided and titrated to obtain a satisfactory level of sedation, but different evaluation scores are needed to discriminate between light or inadequate and deep or excessive sedation, especially when the clinical examination is unavailable. It is usual to associate a benzodiazepin with an opioid, more often Midazolam and Morphine or Fentanyl; other drugs as Propofol, Clonidine and Ketamine have specific indications, brief painful procedures and weaning from long periods of sedation to avoid withdrawal. Sometimes it can be useful to add a neuromuscular blocking agent to help mechanical ventilation. Adverse sedation events are relatively frequent, associated with drug overdoses and drug interactions, particularly when 3 or more drugs are used: all class of medications and all routes of administration are involved.
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The objective of this study was to describe the suprascapular nerve block using CT guidance and to evaluate the short- and medium-term efficacy in a range of shoulder pathologies. ⋯ In some patients with chronic soft tissue pathologies who do not respond to conventional treatment, a CT-guided suprascapular nerve block can provide safe short- and medium-term relief from pain and disability.
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Osteoarthrosis of the zygapophyseal joint (Z-joint) is a potential cause of chronic cervical pain. The diagnosis of thirty patients, with pain of more than 12 months duration and with no history of trauma, was confirmed with intra-articular fluoroscopy-guided infiltration of anesthetic. ⋯ The mean time for relapse of 50 percent of the pre-injection level of pain was 12.47 +/- 1.89 weeks, significantly longer than 3 days as reported in patients similarly treated following whiplash neck injury. At this point selective blockade of Z-joints may be offered as an adjunct for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes for patients with chronic neck pain due to facet osteoarthrosis in the ambulatory setup.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Apr 2004
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialTramadol added to 1.5% mepivacaine for axillary brachial plexus block improves postoperative analgesia dose-dependently.
Adjuncts to local anesthetics for peripheral plexus blockade may enhance the quality and duration of anesthesia and postoperative analgesia. The analgesic, tramadol, has a unique mechanism of action that suggests efficacy as such an adjunct. It displays a central analgesic and peripheral local anesthetic effect. We designed a prospective, randomized, controlled and double-blind clinical trial to assess the effect of tramadol added to brachial plexus anesthesia. One-hundred patients scheduled for carpal tunnel release surgery under brachial plexus anesthesia were randomized into four groups. All patients received 1.5% mepivacaine 40 mL plus a study solution containing either isotonic sodium chloride (Group P, n = 17), tramadol 40 mg (Group T(40), n = 22), tramadol 100 mg (Group T(100), n = 20) or tramadol 200 mg (Group T(200), n = 20). We evaluated the time of onset of anesthesia, duration of sensory and motor blockade, duration and quality of postoperative analgesia, and occurrence of adverse effects. Onset and duration of sensory and motor blocks were not different among groups. The number of patients requesting analgesia in the postoperative period was significantly less in the 3 tramadol groups compared with the placebo group (P = 0.02); this was also noted with the placebo and T(40) groups compared with the T(200) group. No statistical significance was demonstrated between the placebo and the T(40) group or the T(100) group and the T(200) group. Furthermore, there was a significant trend effect among groups applying the Cochran-Armitage tendency test (P = 0.003), suggesting a dose-dependent decrease for additional postoperative analgesia requirements when tramadol was added. Side effects did not differ among groups, although they were more frequently recorded in the T groups. Our study suggests that tramadol added to 1.5% mepivacaine for brachial plexus block enhances in a dose-dependent manner the duration of analgesia with acceptable side effects. However, the safety of tramadol has to be investigated before allowing its use in clinical practice. ⋯ Tramadol's unique mechanism of action suggests efficacy as a local anesthetic adjunct for peripheral plexus blockade. Our study demonstrates that tramadol, added to mepivacaine for brachial plexus anesthesia, extends the duration and improves the quality of postoperative analgesia in a dose dependent fashion with acceptable side effects.