A single glucocorticoid intradiscal injection (GC IDI) provided relief from low back pain (LBP) at 1, but not 12, months in patients with active discopathy, as indicated by a study recently published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.1 Some patients with chronic LBP exhibit intervertebral disc changes on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which are categorized according […]
Read MoreAny questions regarding the safety of tranexamic acid in patients undergoing cardiac surgery seem to have been put to rest with the ATACAS (Aspirin and Tranexamic Acid For Coronary Artery Surgery) trial. In a cohort of nearly 5,000 patients, the trial concluded that tranexamic acid was associated with a lower risk for bleeding than placebo, […]
Read MoreAlthough dexamethasone may be a beneficial adjunct to surgery in terms of its antiemetic and anti-inflammatory effects, a team of researchers from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital has found that it may have a darker side, particularly in diabetic patients. A pilot study concluded that dexamethasone administration was associated with significant postoperative hyperglycemia in these patients […]
Read MoreUnderbody warming blankets ultimately may prove to be a better choice than their overbody counterparts, with respect to both treating and preventing hypothermia, according to a recent study. “A few years have passed since underbody-type blankets were introduced to the market,” began Hiroshi Sumida, MD, a staf f anesthesiologist at the Tohoku University School of […]
Read MoreThe high variability of postoperative pain is thought to partly underlie the discrepancies in results across studies. In a talk titled “Preventing persistent post-surgical pain and promoting opioid cessation after discharge,” given at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pain Medicine, March 15-19, 2017, in Orlando, Florida, Jennifer Hah, MD, MS, an anesthesiologist and […]
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