Surgeons pack donated organs on ice while racing them to transplant patients but it may be time for a warmer approach. British researchers said Wednesday that keeping at least some livers at body temperature instead may work better. The livers keep functioning until they’re transplanted thanks to a machine that pumps them full of blood […]
Read MoreMaintaining a stocked cart, with a full supply of the life-saving drug dantrolene, to treat malignant hyperthermia, a rare but potentially fatal adverse reaction to general anesthesia, may not be cost-beneficial in hospital maternity units where the incidence of the reaction is low, according to a new paper published in the Online First edition of Anesthesiology, […]
Read MoreTwo years ago, Dr. Daniel Cole’s 85-year-old father had heart bypass surgery. He hasn’t been quite the same since. “He forgets things and will ask you the same thing several times,” said Cole, a professor of clinical anesthesiology at UCLA and a past president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. “He never got back to […]
Read MoreAuthors: Enrico M. Camporesi, M.D. et al Anesthesia Research Institute & University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States Introduction: Opioids produce many undesirable side effects such as respiratory depression, sedation, nausea/vomiting, constipation, and ileus. Short-acting opioid used during anesthesia may lead to acute opioid-induced tolerance and hyperalgesia [1]. Furthermore, opioid addiction and overdosing are recognized […]
Read MoreIntraoperative infusions of esmolol reduced intraoperative opioid use, PACU opioid use and PACU pain scores, and may be effective as part of a multimodal analgesic regimen in certain patient populations. “Esmolol can obviously decrease risk for conditions like opioid-induced hyperalgesia, and perhaps should be used for specific subsets of patients, such as those undergoing ambulatory […]
Read MoreExtending the duration of adductor canal blocks after total knee arthroplasty may improve pain control without compromising functional outcomes or delaying discharge. Results of a prospective, randomized, open-label study show that a higher proportion of patients randomly assigned to 48-hour infusion experienced milder pain after total knee arthroplasty when compared with a single-shot injection and […]
Read MoreHigh blood pressure in the PACU has been linked to poorer outcomes after painful surgical procedures. According to a recent study’s results, the incidence of posto perative hypertension in patients who had undergone general anesthesia was associated with increased PACU length of stay (LOS) and pulmonary complications. Future studies evaluating blood pressure in the immediate […]
Read MoreAuthors: Honorio T. Benzon, M.D. et al Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, United States Introduction: Contrast medium is usually avoided, or a steroid premedication is given, in patients with a history of allergy to the contrast. We report 8 patients who were unintentionally given contrast and did not develop significant (moderate to […]
Read MoreAMERICAN SOCIETY OF ANESTHESIOLOGISTS Opioid-free general anesthesia is safe, effective and dramatically decreases postoperative nausea, according to a single-center study of more than 1,000 patients being presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2017 annual meeting. Using opioid alternatives during general anesthesia is part of an effort by TEAMHealth Anesthesia at Select Physicians Surgery Center in Tampa, Florida […]
Read MoreAuthors: Krumholz HM et al. N Engl J Med 2017 Sep 14. Hospital quality contributes to readmission rates, independent of patient factors. Readmission rates are a common measure of hospital quality. Concerns have been raised that national readmission measures might reflect differences in unmeasured factors, such as patients’ social welfare or educational levels, rather than hospital performance. […]
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