Anesthesiology
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Several models describing the pharmacokinetics of ketamine are published with differences in model structure and complexity. A systematic review of the literature was performed, as well as a meta-analysis of pharmacokinetic data and construction of a pharmacokinetic model from raw data sets to qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate existing ketamine pharmacokinetic models and construct a general ketamine pharmacokinetic model. ⋯ A meta-analytical analysis of ketamine pharmacokinetics was successfully completed despite large heterogeneity in study characteristics. Differences in output of the meta-analytical approach and a combined analysis of 14 raw data sets were small, indicative that the meta-analytical approach gives a clinically applicable approximation of ketamine population parameter estimates and may be used when no raw data sets are available.
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Frailty and cognitive impairment are associated with postoperative delirium, but are rarely assessed preoperatively. The study was designed to test the hypothesis that preoperative screening for frailty or cognitive impairment identifies patients at risk for postoperative delirium (primary outcome). ⋯ Screening for frailty and cognitive impairment preoperatively using the FRAIL scale and the Animal Verbal Fluency test in older elective spine surgery patients identifies those at high risk for the development of postoperative delirium.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Hypotension Prediction Index for Prevention of Hypotension during Moderate- to High-risk Noncardiac Surgery.
The Hypotension Prediction Index is a commercially available algorithm, based on arterial waveform features, that predicts hypotension defined as mean arterial pressure less than 65 mmHg for at least 1 min. We therefore tested the primary hypothesis that index guidance reduces the duration and severity of hypotension during noncardiac surgery. ⋯ In this pilot trial, index guidance did not reduce the amount of intraoperative hypotension. Half of the alerts were not followed by treatment, presumably due to short warning time, complex treatment algorithm, or clinicians ignoring the alert. In the future we plan to use a lower index alert threshold and a simpler treatment algorithm that emphasizes prompt treatment.