Recommendations for standards of monitoring during anaesthesia and recovery 2015: Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland.

This guideline updates and replaces the 4th edition of the AAGBI Standards of Monitoring published in 2007. The aim of this document is to provide guidance on the minimum standards for physiological monitoring of any patient undergoing anaesthesia or sedation under the care of an anaesthetist. The recommendations are primarily aimed at anaesthetists practising in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Minimum standards for monitoring patients during anaesthesia and in the recovery phase are included. There is also guidance on monitoring patients undergoing sedation and also during transfer of anaesthetised or sedated patients. There are new sections discussing the role of monitoring depth of anaesthesia, neuromuscular blockade and cardiac output. The indications for end-tidal carbon dioxide monitoring have been updated.

Safety guideline: skin antisepsis for central neuraxial blockade.

Concise guidelines are presented that recommend the method of choice for skin antisepsis before central neuraxial blockade. The Working Party specifically considered the concentration of antiseptic agent to use and its method of application. The advice presented is based on previously published guidelines, laboratory and clinical studies, case reports, and on the known properties of antiseptic agents.

Effect of intradermal anaesthesia on success rate and pain of intravenous cannulation: a randomized non-blind crossover study.

Intravenous cannulation is a commonly performed procedure. This study aimed to determine whether the success rate and pain of intravenous cannulation is affected by prior injection of intradermal lidocaine. Intravenous cannulation was performed twice in 45 healthy volunteers. Intradermal lidocaine was administered prior to one of these cannulations. The outcome measures were success or failure of cannulation, and pain of cannulation, measured with a 100 mm visual analogue pain scale. The success rate of intravenous cannulation with and without prior intradermal lidocaine was 54% and 76%, respectively. The difference was 22.0% (95% CI 1.5-27.8%; P = 0.03). Log-linear analysis for three-way interaction between the variables (outcome, vascular condition and use of lidocaine) showed a significant influence of vascular condition on outcome (G(2) 24.6, P < 0.001). The mean (SD) pain scores in the control and intervention group were 34.8 (21.0) and 13.6 (13.2) mm, respectively. The difference between the mean pain scores was 21.2 mm (95% CI 15.1-27.3 mm). In conclusion, the success rate of intravenous cannulation may be reduced with the use of intradermal lidocaine, but success rate is primarily dependent on vascular condition. Intradermal lidocaine achieves a clinically significant reduction in the pain of intravenous cannulation.

Expired breath ethanol measurement to calculate irrigating fluid absorption during transurethral resection of the prostate: experience in a district general hospital.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate differences in the absorption of ethanol-tagged irrigant fluid in patients undergoing transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) using measurements of ethanol concentration in the breath. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study comprised 100 randomly selected patients (mean age 71 years, range 38-85) undergoing TURP. At frequent intervals during TURP, the ethanol content of end-expiratory breath samples was measured using an alcometer, venous blood samples were drawn for determination of serum sodium, ethanol and haemoglobin concentration and the absorption of irrigant fluid and blood loss were estimated. These variables were compared between patients operated on by experienced and inexperienced surgeons. RESULTS: Ethanol was detected in the expired breath of 39 patients. Patients who absorbed irrigant fluid underwent longer operations than those who did not (median 33 min and 23 min, respectively; P < 0.01), had a greater weight of prostatic tissue resected (median 27.5 g and 16.5 g, respectively; P < 0.01) and lost more blood intra-operatively (median 295 mL and 143 mL, respectively; P < 0.01). Consultant urologists performed 75 of the operations, with 25 patients (33%) having detectable breath ethanol, and trainees carried out the remaining 25 operations, where 14 (56%) patients had ethanol detected in the expired breath. The difference in peak end-expiratory ethanol values between patients in the consultant and trainee group was significant (P < 0.0). Furthermore, the incidence of 'significant' irrigant fluid absorption, i.e. a peak breath alcohol > 300 mg/L (indicating > 1 L of irrigant absorption) was one patient (1.3%) from those operated upon by a consultant and four (16%) from those treated by a trainee (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Irrigant absorption occurs frequently during TURP and is more likely to occur in operations performed by trainee urologists.

Avoidance of intermittent positive pressure ventilation in tetanus with dantrolene therapy.

Two patients with features of severe tetanus who were successfully treated with dantrolene are reported. Neither patient required treatment with neuromuscular blocking agents so mechanical ventilation, with all its disadvantages, was avoided.

Patient-maintained analgesia with target-controlled alfentanil infusion after cardiac surgery: a comparison with morphine PCA.

The performance of a patient-demand, target-controlled alfentanil infusion system was compared with that of a traditional morphine patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) pump in 120 adult patients after cardiac surgery. Patients were randomized to one of the two PCA systems for their postoperative analgesia in the intensive care unit and pain, nausea and sedation scores were recorded every 4 h for the first 24 h. Episodes of hypoxaemia, myocardial ischaemia and haemodynamic instability were also recorded. In patients using the alfentanil system the overall median visual analogue pain score was 2.3 (95% Cl 2.3-2.8) compared with 3.0 (95% Cl 2.7-3.2) in those using morphine PCA (P < 0.05), but both systems delivered high-quality analgesia. The two groups did not differ with respect to the overall sedation scores, the frequency of postoperative nausea and vomiting, haemodynamic instability, myocardial ischaemia or hypoxaemia.

Lack of rapid development of opioid tolerance during alfentanil and remifentanil infusions for postoperative pain.

UNLABELLED: Studies in animals and volunteers have suggested the development of acute tolerance to opioid analgesics. In this article, we present data from patients who regulated their own target-controlled infusions of alfentanil and remifentanil to provide analgesia in the immediate postoperative period. Fifty-one patients received alfentanil for 24 h after cardiac surgery, and 30 patients received remifentanil for 6 h after orthopedic surgery. Satisfactory analgesia, defined as a rating of < or =3 on an 11-point visual analog scale, was obtained by patients after each type of surgery. The target concentrations of the opioids required to produce postoperative analgesia and the cumulative opioid doses administered over the course of the clinical observation suggest there was no tolerance to the analgesic effects of the opioids. The requirements for both analgesic drugs in individual patients had a large variation (>200%). We conclude that our results may indicate an absence of tolerance to opioids in postoperative analgesia. Nonetheless, our data show that the postoperative requirement for these rapidly acting drugs is qualitatively similar to that for other opioids in that dosage escalation does not occur. IMPLICATIONS: The development of acute tolerance to opioid analgesics has been suggested based on experimental studies in animals and volunteers. Our report from patients who self-controlled their analgesic requirements by using target-controlled infusions of alfentanil and remifentanil for postoperative analgesia provides no evidence of tolerance to opioids.

Comparison of S(-)-bupivacaine with racemic (RS)-bupivacaine in supraclavicular brachial plexus block.

Bupivacaine is used widely as a local anaesthetic but has potential for severe cardiovascular and central nervous system (CNS) toxicity. It has an asymmetric carbon atom giving it a chiral centre, and the commercial preparation is a racemic mixture of its two enantiomers: dextro or R(+)-bupivacaine and levo or S(-)-bupivacaine. Preclinical studies have demonstrated reduced cardiotoxicity and CNS toxicity for S(-)-bupivacaine. In this study we have compared the clinical efficacy of S(-)-bupivacaine with racemic RS-bupivacaine for supraclavicular brachial plexus block in 75 patients undergoing elective hand surgery. Patients received 0.4 ml kg-1 of either 0.25% or 0.5% S(-)-bupivacaine or 0.5% RS-bupivacaine in a randomized, double-blind study. Clinical assessments of sensory and motor block were performed at regular intervals. There were no significant differences in onset time, dermatomal spread or duration of both sensory and motor block between the three groups (the power of the study was 81% to detect a 4-h difference in duration). Duration of sensory block was prolonged with wide interpatient variation: 892 (SD 250) min, 1039 (317) min and 896 (284) min for 0.25% S(-)-bupivacaine, 0.5% S(-)-bupivacaine and 0.5% RS-bupivacaine, respectively. There were no differences in the overall success rate of the technique. We conclude that S(-)-bupivacaine was suitable for local anaesthetic use in brachial plexus block anaesthesia.