Ensuring the success of women faculty at AMCs: lessons learned from the National Centers of Excellence in Women's Health.

Since the early 1970s, the numbers of women entering medical school and, subsequently, academic medicine have increased substantially. However, women faculty have not advanced at the expected rate to senior academic ranks or positions of leadership. In 1996, to counter this trend, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Office on Women's Health included women's leadership as a required component of the nationally funded Centers of Excellence in Women's Health to identify effective strategies and initiate model programs to advance women faculty in academic medicine. The authors describe the experience of Centers at seven U.S. medical schools in initiating and sustaining leadership programs for women. The processes used for program formation, the current programmatic content, and program evaluation approaches are explained. Areas of success (e.g., obtaining support from the institution's leaders) and difficulties faced in maintaining an established program (such as institutional fiscal constraints and the diminishing time available to women to participate in mentoring and leadership activities) are reviewed. Strategies to overcome these and other difficulties (e.g., prioritize and tightly focus the program with the help of an advisory group) are proposed. The authors conclude by reviewing issues that programs for women in academic medicine will increasingly need to focus on (e.g., development of new kinds of skills; issues of recruitment and retention of faculty; and increasing faculty diversity).

Transnasal butorphanol is effective for postoperative pain relief in children undergoing myringotomy.

BACKGROUND: More than 70% of children require analgesics after bilateral myringotomy and tube placement (BMT). Because anesthesia for BMT is generally provided by face mask without placement of an intravenous catheter, an alternative route for analgesia administration is needed. Transnasal butorphanol is effective in relieving postoperative pain in adults and children. The effectiveness of transnasal butorphanol for postoperative pain management in children undergoing BMT was studied. METHODS: This double-blinded, placebo-controlled study compared the postoperative analgesic effects of transnasal butorphanol administered after the induction of anesthesia. Sixty children classified as American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status 1 or 2 who were aged 6 months or older and scheduled for elective BMT were randomized to receive transnasal placebo or 5, 15, or 25 microg/kg butorphanol. Postoperative pain was assessed using the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Pain Scale (CHEOPS) on arrival in the postanesthesia care unit and at 5, 10, 15, 30, 45, and 60 min. RESULTS: The CHEOP scores were significantly less in the 25 microg/kg transnasal butorphanol group compared with controls. Significantly fewer children received rescue analgesia in the 25 microg/kg transnasal butorphanol group compared with controls (n = 1 and 8, respectively; P = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: Transnasal butorphanol given in a dose of 25 microg/kg after induction of anesthesia provided adequate postoperative pain relief in children undergoing BMT.

Dilutional and modified ultrafiltration reduces pulmonary hypertension after operations for congenital heart disease: a prospective randomized study.

OBJECTIVE: A prospective randomized study was performed to test whether removal of endothelin-1, by ultrafiltration techniques, will reduce pulmonary hypertension after operations for congenital heart disease. METHODS: Twenty-four patients with pulmonary hypertension (systolic pulmonary/systemic arterial pressure ratio > 60%) undergoing cardiac operations were randomized into a control group (n = 12) having conventional ultrafiltration and an experimental group (n = 12) undergoing dilutional ultrafiltration during and modified ultrafiltration after cardiopulmonary bypass. Plasma endothelin-1, nitric oxide metabolites, and cyclic guanosine monophosphate were assayed before bypass, 10 minutes into bypass, after bypass, and 0, 3, 6, and 12 hours after the operation in both groups, as well as in the ultrafiltrates and after modified ultrafiltration in the experimental group. Both groups received alpha-blockers (chlorpromazine and/or prazosin) postoperatively using the same guidelines. RESULTS: The ultrafiltrates contained significant amounts of endothelin-1 (1.81 +/- 0.86 pg/ml, dilutional, and 6.44 +/- 1.82 pg/ml, modified ultrafiltrate). Endothelin-1 and the pulmonary/systemic pressure ratio were significantly lower in experimental compared with control patients. Nitric oxide metabolites and cyclic guanosine monophosphate increased similarly in both groups for 12 hours after the operation (p = not significant). Three of 12 control patients (25%) but no experimental patients had pulmonary hypertensive crises (p = 0.07). The experimental patients required significantly less ventilatory support (67 +/- 47 hours vs 178 +/- 139 hours for control patients, p = 0.048). CONCLUSIONS: Dilutional and modified ultrafiltration reduce endothelin-1 and the pulmonary/systemic pressure ratio postoperatively and may become an important adjunct for preventing pulmonary hypertension after operations for congenital heart disease in high-risk patients.

Latex anaphylaxis: report of occurrence in two pediatric surgical patients and review of the literature.

This report describes two cases of intraoperative anaphylaxis in children sensitized to latex. Both children were undergoing nonurological procedures and, despite numerous previous operations, neither had a history of unusual reaction or anaphylaxis during surgery. The problem of latex allergy is discussed with review of the current literature and suggestions for management.

Pulmonary capillary recruitment in neonatal lambs.

In species having lungs large enough to develop hydrostatic perfusion zones, increased pulmonary arterial pressure causes blood flow to be redistributed from the lower to the upper lung. The blood flow increase in the upper lung recruits capillaries and increases gas exchange surface area. There is disagreement, however, about whether such capillary recruitment occurs in young animals with small lungs. To investigate this issue, we used in vivo microscopy to directly study capillary perfusion in individual alveolar walls in the upper lungs of neonatal lambs and in older lambs with larger lungs. Pulmonary arterial pressure was elevated by airway hypoxia. In neonatal lambs (< 10 d old; n = 7), hypoxia increased pulmonary arterial pressure by 55% but did not cause capillary recruitment. In older lambs (20-61 d old; n = 6), hypoxia increased pulmonary arterial pressure by 40% and caused a 46% increase in recruited capillaries. These results support the hypothesis that capillary recruitment does not occur in newborn lambs when pulmonary arterial pressure increases and implies that there is limited gas exchange reserve. In older lambs, however, gas exchange reserve develops through recruitable capillaries as the lungs mature.

Pain management in children.

Recent research into the mechanisms of pain and pain management and the development of new pharmacological agents have greatly increased the possibilities for preventing and treating postoperative pain in the pediatric patient. This article briefly reviews the physiology of pain and the measurement and assessment of pain, and then discusses in some detail the various modalities useful in treating pain in the pediatric patient during the perioperative period.

Iodine toxicity: an unusual cause of cardiovascular collapse during anesthesia in an infant with Hirschsprung's disease.

This report describes a case of acute life-threatening iodine toxicity in an infant with Hirschsprung's disease caused by rectal irrigation with povidone-iodine. A hypothesis regarding absorption and recommendations for povidone-iodine usage for bowel preparation are presented.