Articles: function.
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Review
Positive airway pressure therapy with adaptive servoventilation: part 1: operational algorithms.
The beginning of the 21st century witnessed the advent of new positive airway pressure (PAP) technologies for the treatment of central and complex (mixtures of obstructive and central) sleep apnea syndromes. Adaptive servoventilation (ASV) devices applied noninvasively via mask that act to maintain a stable level of ventilation regardless of mechanism are now widely available. These PAP devices function by continually measuring either minute ventilation or airflow to calculate a target ventilation to be applied as needed. ⋯ Moreover, ASV units have become available that incorporate autotitration of expiratory PAP to fully automate the treatment of all varieties of sleep-disordered breathing. Although extremely effective in many patients when used properly, these are complex devices that demand from the clinician a high degree of expertise in understanding how they work and how to determine the proper settings for any given patient. In part one of this series we detail the underlying technology, whereas in part two we will describe the application of ASV in the clinical setting.
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Compelling evidence points at both impaired proprioception and disturbed force control in patients with chronic complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). Because force modulation at least partly relies on proprioception, we evaluated if impaired sense of force production contributes to disturbances of force control in patients with CRPS. ⋯ CRPS patients, in particular those with abnormal postures, showed impaired voluntary force control and an impaired sense of force production. This suggests that therapeutic strategies aimed at restoration of proprioceptive impairments, possibly using online visual feedback, may promote the recovery of motor function in CRPS.
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Curr Opin Crit Care · Aug 2014
ReviewPrevention of renal dysfunction in postoperative elderly patients.
To describe the effect of ageing on kidney function and to summarize the benefits of advocated measures to prevent perioperative acute kidney injury (AKI) in elderly patients. ⋯ The future increase in elderly patients being exposed to surgery calls for improved perioperative management to prevent collaterally increased AKI. Although pharmacological therapies aiming to protect the kidneys from harm are under evaluation, hemodynamic optimization and avoidance of nephrotoxic drugs, including HES and hyperchloremic solutions, are critical for the elderly perioperative patient.
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Acta Anaesthesiol Scand · Aug 2014
Observational StudyTissue near infra red spectroscopy change is not correlated with patients' outcome in elective cardiac surgery.
Microcirculatory disturbances following cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) are thought to be at the origin of organ dysfunction, although few studies have correlated microvascular alterations with outcome. We aimed to assess the microcirculation with near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and correlate NIRS parameters with intensive care length of stay and organ dysfunction. ⋯ This study confirms, through a non-invasive technology, a significant but transient alteration of the microcirculation during elective cardiac surgery. However, as these microvascular alterations were not correlated with patient's outcome, NIRS-derived parameters seem to be of limited interest in the cardiac surgery setting.
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Acta Anaesthesiol Scand · Aug 2014
Comparative Study Clinical TrialThe median effective dose of dexmedetomidine for laryngeal mask airway insertion with propofol 2.0 mg/kg.
Dexmedetomidine can be used as a co-induction agent to facilitate laryngeal mask airway (LMA) insertion with minimal effect on respiratory function. The purpose of the study was to determine the median effective dose (ED50) of dexmedetomidine to facilitate LMA insertion during anaesthesia induction with propofol 2.0 mg/kg without neuromuscular blockade. ⋯ The single dose of dexmedetomidine for successful LMA insertion to be feasible in 50% of patients was 0.55 μg/kg during anaesthesia induction with propofol 2 mg/kg.