Published in Int J Clin Oncol. 2014 May Authors: Shimoyama N et al BACKGROUND: Breakthrough cancer pain typically has a rapid onset and relatively short duration. Due to this temporal profile, it may not be adequately relieved by oral opioid analgesics. The sublingual fentanyl orally disintegrating tablet is a formulation by which fentanyl can be […]
Read MoreEmployees crave more than just a paycheck from work. They want to go home feeling valued and respected for the job they do. Only about a third of employees these days say they are “engaged” in their jobs. But in the midst of everyday chaos, it’s hard for managers to think about big-picture issues like […]
Read MoreRoutine preanesthetic tests cost more than $60 billion every year, but far fewer than 1% reveal pertinent abnormalities relating to the anesthetic or the surgery, according to a 1989 study published in the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia (1989;36:S13-S19). For that reason, national guidelines recommend minimizing preoperative testing in low-risk, stable patients undergoing non-emergent surgery. The […]
Read MoreI thought this was interesting to read so I wanted to share it with our followers. A study presented at this year’s Euroanaesthesia meeting shows that children exposed to indoor coal-burning stoves and/or second-hand tobacco smoke are much more likely to suffer postoperative complications and excessive pain after tonsillectomies. Almost half of the world’s population […]
Read MoreOne of the major arguments against the ICD-10 transition are the financial costs to medical practices. Sure, there are accusations of bureaucratic overreach and preventing physicians from spending time treating patients, but the anti-ICD-10 argument is primarily financial. So why not offer providers an incentive? Take the example of Meaningful Use. If the same physicians […]
Read MorePublished in Anesth Analg. 2014 May 5 Authors: Lequeux PY et al BACKGROUND: Implicit learning of intraoperative auditory stimuli during general anesthesia is very difficult to quantify but may require the presence of noxious stimulation. We hypothesized that an anesthetic regimen with a low dose of opioid would enhance implicit memory, while a regimen […]
Read MorePublished in Anesth Analg. 2014 Jun;118(6):1370-7 Authors: Hanson NA et al BACKGROUND: Adductor canal blocks have shown promise in reducing postoperative pain in total knee arthroplasty patients. No randomized, controlled studies, however, evaluate the opioid-sparing benefits of a continuous 0.2% ropivacaine infusion at the adductor canal. We hypothesized that a continuous adductor canal block would […]
Read MorePublished in Anesth Analg. 2014 Jun;118(6):1309-16 Authors: Cao L et al BACKGROUND: Associations between anesthetic management and cancer recurrence or long-time survival remain uncertain. In this study, we compared the effects of postoperative epidural morphine analgesia with that of postoperative IV fentanyl analgesia on cancer recurrence and long-term survival in patients undergoing resection of hepatocellular […]
Read MorePublished in Can J Surg. 2014 Jun;57(3):175-82. Authors: Yon JH et al BACKGROUND: Pre-emptive intravenous lidocaine infusion is known to improve postoperative pain in abdominal surgery. We assessed the effect of intravenous lidocaine infusion in patients who underwent subtotal gastrectomy. METHODS: We conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled study with patients undergoing subtotal gastrectomy for early gastric […]
Read MorePublished in Anesth Analg. 2014 Jun;118(6):1363-9 Authors: Techasuk W et al BACKGROUND: In this prospective, randomized, observer-blinded study, we compared double-injection (DI) ultrasound-guided supraclavicular block to a novel targeted intracluster-injection (TII) technique, whereby local anesthetic is injected inside the main and satellite neural clusters (confluences of trunks and divisions of the brachial plexus). METHODS: Ninety […]
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