Articles: function.
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Practice Guideline
Respiratory Management of Patients with Neuromuscular Weakness: An American College of Chest Physicians Clinical Practice Guideline and Expert Panel Report.
Respiratory failure is a significant concern in neuromuscular diseases (NMDs). This CHEST guideline examines the literature on the respiratory management of patients with NMD to provide evidence-based recommendations. ⋯ Evidence of best practices for respiratory management in NMD is limited and is based primarily on observational data in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The panel found that pulmonary function testing every 6 months may be beneficial and may be used to initiate noninvasive ventilation (NIV) when clinically indicated. An individualized approach to NIV settings may benefit patients with chronic respiratory failure and sleep-disordered breathing related to NMD. When resources allow, polysomnography or overnight oximetry can help to guide the initiation of NIV. The panel provided guidelines for mouthpiece ventilation, transition to home mechanical ventilation, salivary secretion management, and airway clearance therapies. The guideline panel emphasizes that NMD pathologic characteristics represent a diverse group of disorders with differing rates of decline in lung function. The clinician's role is to add evaluation at the bedside to shared decision-making with patients and families, including respect for patient preferences and treatment goals, considerations of quality of life, and appropriate use of available resources in decision-making.
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Curr Opin Anaesthesiol · Aug 2023
ReviewDirect oral anticoagulants and their antagonists in perioperative practice.
Review management strategies for patients receiving nonvitamin K direct-acting oral anticoagulants (DOACs). ⋯ Most currently used DOACs are factor Xa inhibitors and should be stopped for 24-48 h for elective surgical procedures in patients at risk for bleeding and potentially longer for dabigatran, depending on renal function. Idarucizumab, a specific dabigatran reversal agent, has been studied in surgical patients and is currently approved for use. For Xa inhibitors apixaban and rivaroxaban, although andexanet alfa is approved for medical bleeds, it is not approved for surgical patients, has a short duration of effect, and costs $12 500 per gram. When managing DOAC-treated patients requiring emergency surgery, when stopping the DOAC and delaying surgery is not feasible, standard approaches should include hemostatic, hemodynamic, and transfusional support. Due to higher risk associated with therapeutic agents used to manage DOAC-related bleeding, increasing data supports the potential off-label use of prothrombin complex concentrate (PCC).
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This study aimed to identify the clinical usefulness of assessing nutritional status using validated tools for the indication of enteral nutrition for patients with incurable cancer in palliative care. ⋯ Using the modified Glasgow Prognostic Score to identify the existence and severity of CC, which is associated with function, has the potential to help clinical decision making concerning the indication of enteral nutrition in patients with incurable cancer receiving palliative care.
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Comment Meta Analysis
In ischemic stroke, EVT improved 90-d function more than usual care across admission SBP levels.
Samuels N, van de Graaf RA, Mulder MJHL, et al; HERMES Collaborators. Admission systolic blood pressure and effect of endovascular treatment in patients with ischaemic stroke: an individual patient data meta-analysis. Lancet Neurol. 2023;22:312-319. 36931806.
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Mayo Clinic proceedings · Aug 2023
ReviewQuestioning the Right to Pain Relief and Its Role in the Opioid Epidemic.
The new discipline of palliative care helped to establish the right to pain relief at the end of life and the necessity of using opioids to achieve that goal. Professional pain organizations followed the United Nations' model for universal human rights in their declaration of a universal right to pain management. Both palliative care and pain medicine specialties worked to establish pain as a legitimate focus of medical treatment separate from its association with disease. ⋯ This understanding of opioids as having distinct and separable analgesic and addictive potential was challenged by the 1970s discovery of an endogenous opioid system, which integrates pain and reward functions to support survival. Our modern pain neurophysiology places the patient with pain in a passive position from which it makes sense to assert a right to pain relief. To prevent future opioid epidemics we need to abandon clinical outpatient use of pain intensity scores and redefine the medical necessity of pain treatment as less about the reduction of pain intensity and more about the capacity to pursue personally valued activities.