Owing to increases in life expectancy, the patients presenting for surgery are older, and have more co-morbidities. Worldwide, 3–4% of patients die within 2 months of major surgery, with increased mortality and morbidity in high-risk surgical candidates, including the elderly and medically unwell. In Australia and New Zealand, older patients having non-cardiac surgery have a […]
Read MorePublished in Ann Surg Oncol. 2014 Jul 18 Authors: Fahy AS et al BACKGROUND: Mastectomy is associated with postoperative nausea and pain. We evaluated whether paravertebral block (PVB) use altered opioid use, antiemetic use, and length of stay in patients undergoing mastectomy. METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort analysis of all patients who underwent mastectomy […]
Read MoreParacetamol is no better than placebo at speeding recovery from acute episodes of lower back pain or improving pain levels, function, sleep, or quality of life, according to a study published in The Lancet. Low-back pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide. National clinical guidelines universally recommend paracetamol as the first choice analgesic for […]
Read MoreA simplified anaesthesia procedure may enable more widespread use of preoperative testing to demonstrate the cause of airway obstruction in patients with severe sleep apnoea, according to a study published in the journal Anesthesia & Analgesia. Researchers have developed a new “ramp control” anaesthetic technique for putting patients to sleep briefly-just enough to show the […]
Read MoreAnesthesiologists are fleeing private practice and there are now two more reasons why this trend is likely to continue or even accelerate: Governmental audits and breaches of protected health information (PHI). Audits and PHI are on the rise in physician’s practices which are threatening revenue streams at levels never seen before due to fines and […]
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