Discharge time in patients who receive fentanyl or alfentanil for general anesthesia.

Forty ASA I and II patients undergoing elective termination of pregnancy were studied. Patients were randomly selected to receive fentanyl or alfentanil. Patients received 1 to 2 mg midazolam, 2.0 to 2.5 mg/kg propofol, and 10 to 20 micrograms/kg alfentanil or 1 to 2 micrograms/kg fentanyl for induction and maintenance of anesthesia. In addition all patients were administered 70% N2O and 30% O2. The time from admission to the post anesthesia recovery unit until discharged home was defined as the discharge time. These times were compared using the student's t test to determine if there was a significant difference (P < .05) between the mean discharge time of the two groups. In addition, each patient's total postanesthesia recovery scores were evaluated on admission, at 15 minutes, and at discharge from the post anesthesia recovery unit. These data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test to determine if there was a significant difference in the mean rate of recovery in each area observed. The data revealed no statistically significant difference between the mean discharge times of the two groups or in the total post anesthesia recovery unit recovery scores.

Effect of a bulk-forming cathartic on diarrhea in tube-fed patients.

Diarrhea is a significant complication for the patient being tube-fed. The purpose of this study was to observe whether giving a bulk-forming cathartic to patients receiving enteral nutrition via nasogastric or nasoduodenal tube would result in firmer stools for these patients. Forty-nine patients in a large medical center were randomly assigned to either a control or an experimental group. During the 6-day study period 1 teaspoon (5 ml) of psyllium preparation was administered through the feeding tube three times a day. Data were analyzed by using the Mann-Whitney U test for nonparametric data. The hypothesis that giving a bulk-forming cathartic would lead to firmer stools was supported at an alpha level of less than 0.01. The results of this study suggest that use of a bulk-forming cathartic in tube-fed patients will significantly reduce the diarrhea associated with this type of feeding.