Effects of indigo carmine intravenous injection on noninvasive and continuous total hemoglobin measurement with using the Revision L sensor.

The effects of intravenous injection of indigo carmine on noninvasive and continuous total hemoglobin (SpHb) measurement were retrospectively evaluated with the Revision L sensor. The subjects were 18 patients who underwent elective gynecologic surgery under general anesthesia. During surgery, 5 mL of 0.4 % indigo carmine was injected intravenously, and changes in SpHb concentrations between before and after the injection were evaluated. The mean age was 52.4 ± 12.8 years. Before injection, the median SpHb level was 10.1 (range, 6.8-13.4) g/dL. The results demonstrated no change in SpHb concentration between before and after indigo carmine injection as detected by the Revision L sensor. SpHb measurements as determined with the Revision L sensor were not affected, even after the intravenous injection of indigo carmine.

Population pharmacokinetics of intravenous acetaminophen in Japanese patients undergoing elective surgery.

INTRODUCTION: Intravenous (i.v.) acetaminophen is administered during surgery for postoperative analgesia. However, little information is available on the pharmacokinetics of i.v. acetaminophen in Japanese patients undergoing surgery under general anesthesia. METHODS: The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board and registered at UMIN-CTR (UMIN000013418). Patients scheduled to undergo elective surgery under general anesthesia were enrolled after obtaining written informed consent. During surgery, 1 g of i.v. acetaminophen was administered over 15, 60, or 120 min. Acetaminophen concentrations (15 or 16 samples per case) were measured at time points from 0-480 min after the start of administration (liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry/tandem mass spectrometry; limit of quantitation 0.1 µg/mL). The predictive performance of three published pharmacokinetic models was evaluated. Population pharmacokinetics were also analyzed using a nonlinear mixed-effect model based on the NONMEM program. RESULTS: Data from 12 patients who underwent endoscopic or lower limb procedures were analyzed (male/female = 7/5, median age 55 years, weight 63 kg). Anesthesia was maintained with remifentanil and propofol or sevoflurane. The pharmacokinetic model of i.v. acetaminophen reported by Würthwein et al. worked well. Using 185 datapoints, the pharmacokinetics of i.v. acetaminophen were described by a two-compartment model with weight as a covariate but not age, sex, or creatinine clearance. The median prediction error and median absolute prediction error of the final model were -1 and 10%, respectively. CONCLUSION: A population pharmacokinetic model of i.v. acetaminophen in Japanese patients was constructed, with performance within acceptable ranges.

Validation of continuous and noninvasive hemoglobin monitoring by pulse CO-oximetry in Japanese surgical patients.

We evaluated the accuracy of noninvasive and continuous total hemoglobin (SpHb) monitoring with the Radical-7(®) Pulse CO-Oximeter in Japanese surgical patients before and after an in vivo adjustment of the first SpHb value to match the first reference value from a satellite laboratory CO-Oximeter. Twenty patients undergoing surgical procedures with general anesthesia were monitored with Pulse CO-Oximetry for SpHb. Laboratory CO-Oximeter values (tHb) were compared to SpHb at the time of the blood draws. Bias, precision, limits of agreement and correlation coefficient of SpHb compared to tHb were calculated before and after SpHb values were adjusted by subtracting the difference between the first SpHb and tHb value from all subsequent SpHb values. Trending of SpHb to tHb and the effect of perfusion index (PI) on the agreement of SpHb to tHb were also analyzed. Ninety-two tHb values were compared to the SpHb. Bias ± 1SD was 0.2 ± 1.5 g/dL before in vivo adjustment and -0.7 ± 1.0 g/dL after in vivo adjustment. Bland-Altman analysis showed limits of agreement of -2.8 to 3.1 g/dL before in vivo adjustment and -2.8 to 1.4 g/dL after in vivo adjustment. The correlation coefficient was 0.76 prior to in vivo adjustment and 0.87 after in vivo adjustment. In patients with adequate perfusion (PI ≥1.4) the correlation coefficient was 0.89. In vivo adjustment of SpHb significantly improved the accuracy in our cohort of Japanese surgical patients. The strongest correlation between SpHb and tHb values was observed in patients with adequate peripheral perfusion suggesting that low perfusion may affect the accuracy of SpHb monitoring.

Critical aspiration pneumonia during induction of anesthesia in elective abdominal surgery: a case report.

BACKGROUND: We experienced the critical aspiration pneumonia during induction of anesthesia in elective abdominal surgery which standard fasting period was complied with. CASE PRESENTATION: A 64-year-old male was scheduled for gastrojejunostomy because of gastrointestinal obstruction. He fasted from the night before surgery. General anesthesia was induced, and cricoid pressure was applied during intubation. However, he vomited huge amount of gastric contents. The scheduled surgery was performed without surgical complications, and postoperatively respiratory management, including mechanical ventilation with prone positioning, was performed in high care unit. He was extubated on postoperative day 2. He was discharged from the hospital on POD 25. CONCLUSION: The standard fasting period can prevent aspiration pneumonia in most cases. However, even in elective cases without abdominal symptoms, we consider that massive-volume gastric residual contents, especially in susceptible cases. We suggest that point-of-care gastric ultrasonography be performed in suspicious cases before induction of anesthesia.

THE EFFECT OF OBESITY ON DOSE OF DEXMEDETOMIDINE WHEN ADMINISTERED WITH FENTANYL DURING POSTOPERATIVE MECHANICAL VENTILATION--RETROSPECTIVE.

We carried out a retrospective investigation on the effect of obesity on dexmedetomidine (DEX) requirements when administered with fentanyl (FEN) during mechanical ventilation after major surgeries. After Institutional Review Board approval, 14 obese patients with a body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30 kg/m(2) and the same number of non-obese patients with similar backgrounds to the obese patients were selected from medical records. Doses of DEX in the first 48 h or until the end of sedation or extubation were calculated for comparison. In addition to comparison of dosing between the groups, associations between total body weight (TBW), BMI, and lean body mass (LBM) values and doses of DEX (mcg/h), between BMI and various indices (i.e., amount per TBW per hour and amount per LBM per hour) of DEX doses, and between above indices of DEX and FEN doses were also examined. There were no significant differences in DEX dose indices between the groups. However, DEX requirements (mcg/h) were significantly increased with TBW (kg) (r = 0.51, P = 0.003), BMI (r = 0.49, P = 0.006) and LBM (kg) (r = 0.42, P = 0.02), which might have enhanced the DEX metabolism with physiological changes with obesity. These findings will be beneficial for future clinical pharmacological analysis of DEX.

Examination of the usefulness of non-invasive stroke volume variation monitoring for adjusting fluid supplementation during laparoscopic adrenalectomy in patients with pheochromocytoma.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: The measurement of stroke volume variation (SVV) using the FloTrac™ system (Edwards Lifescience, USA) is useful to estimate cardiac preload. We evaluated the benefits of SVV monitoring for adjusting fluid supplementation during laparoscopic adrenalectomy under anesthesia in patients with pheochromocytoma. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Among 10 patients who underwent laparoscopic adrenalectomy for pheochromocytoma in our institution from June 2004 to December 2009, SVV was not monitored in 5 patients (group I) and in the other 5 patients (group II), SVV monitoring was performed. Subject age, height and body weight, total volume of fluid supplemented, blood loss, urine output and net fluid in-out balance during the procedure were retrospectively assessed. In those with SVV monitoring, infusion volume was adjusted for SVV less than 13%. RESULTS: There were significant differences in the patient age and body weight between the two groups (group I: 64.2 years old and 55.1 kg; group II: 43.6 years old and 71.7 kg). Both total infusion volume and urine output were significantly higher in group I compared with group II (5,610 vs. 2,400 ml and 1,125 vs. 750 ml, respectively). Total blood loss was similar between the two groups. Values of the net fluid balance divided by the body weight and total anesthesia period (hr) were significantly lower in group II compared with group I (I; +13.2 in group I and +6.2 in group II, ml/kg/hr). CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that SVV monitoring is helpful to estimate the optimal volume for fluid supplementation and could prevent excessive fluid infusion during surgical procedures.

Two cases of thoracic epidural neurolysis after local anesthetic titration in cancer patients.

Two patients who underwent thoracic epidural neurolysis after titration using local anesthetic are reported. Case 1 suffered serious back and epigastric pain arising from metastasis of lung cancer and Case 2 was not relieved right chest pain by costal metastasis from urethral cancer only by morphine. Block therapies improve the patients' quality of life if these underwent in opioid resistant pain or moving pain. Among them subarachnoid neurolytic blockage or epidural continuous blockage are usually selected in terminal stage. Subarachnoid blockage is potent but usually induces paresthesia and hypesthesia and patient has to keep lateral position under affected site intraoperatively. Epidural block is easy to treat but is difficult to continue because of infection and decrement of efficacy attributed adhesion of epidural space, stress arose from immobilization. We operate epidural neurolytic blockage for these patients and they were relieves from pain without suffer from the side effect.