The Year in Thoracic Anesthesia: Selected Highlights from 2022.

This article reviews research highlights in the field of thoracic anesthesia. The highlights of this year included new developments in the preoperative assessment and prehabilitation of patients requiring thoracic surgery, updates on the use of devices for one-lung ventilation (OLV) in adults and children, updates on the anesthetic and postoperative management of these patients, including protective OLV ventilation, the use of opioid-sparing techniques and regional anesthesia, and outcomes using enhanced recovery after surgery, as well as the use of expanding indications for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, specialized anesthetic techniques for airway surgery, and nonintubated video-assisted thoracic surgery.

Vaginal Hysterectomy Performed Under General Versus Neuraxial Regional Anesthesia: Comparison of Patient Characteristics and 30-Day Outcomes Using Propensity Score-Matched Cohorts.

OBJECTIVES: Compared with surgery under general anesthesia (GA), surgery under neuraxial regional anesthesia (RA) has been associated with economic and clinical benefits in certain populations. Our aim was to compare preoperative and postoperative characteristics and 30-day outcomes, including intraoperative complications, for patients undergoing benign vaginal hysterectomy under GA versus RA. METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort study of patients who underwent vaginal hysterectomy for benign indications between 2015 and 2019 using the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database. Patients were identified using Current Procedural Terminology codes and stratified into GA and RA groups. Propensity score matching was performed to account for selection bias between anesthesia groups. RESULTS: Of 18,030 vaginal hysterectomies performed during this study period, 17,472 (96.9%) were performed under GA and 558 (3.1%) under RA. The RA group was older, more likely to be White, and more likely to have a history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and chronic steroid use (P < 0.01 for all); they were less likely to be discharged the same day (8.6% vs 12.2%, P = 0.01). In the matched cohort, there were similar proportions of major, minor, and composite complications between RA and GA groups (major: odds ratio [OR], 0.95; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.51-1.78; minor: OR, 1.18; 95% CI, 0.74-1.88; composite: OR, 1.10; 95% CI, 0.75-1.64). Similar proportions of same-day discharge were observed (OR, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.47-1.10). CONCLUSIONS: Although RA comprises only 3% of the anesthetic modalities used for benign vaginal hysterectomies, it is associated with a similar incidence of postoperative complications compared with general anesthesia.

Effect of sedation on quantitative electroencephalography after cardiac arrest.

BACKGROUND: Electroencephalography (EEG) has clinical and prognostic importance after cardiac arrest (CA). Recently, interest in quantitative EEG (qEEG) analysis has grown. The qualitative effects of sedation on EEG are well known, but potentially confounding effects of sedatives on qEEG after anoxic injury are poorly characterized. We hypothesize that sedation increases suppression ratio (SR) and decreases alpha/delta ratio (ADR) and amplitude-integrated EEG (aEEG), and that the magnitude of sedation effects will be associated with outcome. METHODS: We routinely monitor comatose post-arrest patients with EEG for 48-72h. We included comatose EEG-monitored patients after CA who had protocolized daily sedation interruptions. We used Persyst v12 to quantify qEEG parameters and calculated medians for 10min immediately prior to sedation interruption and for the last 5min of interruption. We used paired t-tests to determine whether qEEG parameters changed with sedation cessation, and logistic regression to determine whether these changes predicted functional recovery or survival at discharge. RESULTS: 78 subjects were included (median age 56, 65% male). Interruptions occurred a median duration of 34h post-arrest and lasted a median duration of 60min. Prior to interruption, higher aEEG predicted survival, while lower SR predicted both survival and favorable outcome. During interruption, SR decreased (p<0.001), aEEG increased (p=0.002), and ADR did not change. Larger decreases in SR predicted decreased survival (OR=1.04 per percent change; 95% CI 1.00-1.09). CONCLUSION: Higher aEEG and lower SR predict survival after CA. Sedation alters aEEG and SR, but importantly does not appear to affect the relationship between these parameter values and outcome.