Anesthesia & Analgesia: September 2016 – Volume 123 – Issue 3 – p 587–596 AUTHORS: Mirzakhani, Hooman MD, PhD et al BACKGROUND: Neuromuscular blockade is required to control excessive muscle contractions during electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). In a crossover, assessor-blinded, prospective randomized study, we studied the minimum effective dose (MED) of succinylcholine and rocuronium for ECT. […]
Read MoreAnesthesia & Analgesia: September 2016 – Volume 123 – Issue 3 – p 570–577 AUTHORS: Fabbro, Michael II DO et al BACKGROUND: The inflated costs and documented deleterious effects of excess perioperative transfusion have led to the investigation of targeted coagulation factor replacement strategies. One particular coagulation factor of interest is factor I (fibrinogen). Hypofibrinogenemia […]
Read MorePreoperative frailty assessments may help predict mortality and functional decline among seniors undergoing cardiac surgical procedures. The results of this systematic review were published online August 23 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. “Despite various ways of measuring frailty, we found strong evidence that it predicts mortality at 6 months or later after major or minimally invasive procedures,” […]
Read MoreAuthors: Lamy A et al., N Engl J Med 2016 Oct 23; Data on outcomes, cost, and quality of life did not differ significantly between the two coronary artery bypass grafting strategies. In the multinational, randomized CORONARY trial, comparing off-pump (beating heart) with on-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), the primary endpoint did not differ significantly between […]
Read MoreEuropean Journal of Anaesthesiology: April 2016 – Volume 33 – Issue 4 – p 275–282 AUTHORS: Lee, Su Hyun et al BACKGROUND: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a risk factor that increases the incidence of postoperative cardiopulmonary morbidity and mortality after lung resection. Dexmedetomidine, a selective α2-adrenoreceptor agonist, has been reported previously to attenuate intrapulmonary […]
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