Prognostic factors for chronic post-surgical pain after lung and pleural surgery: a systematic review with meta-analysis, meta-regression and trial sequential analysis.

Chronic post-surgical pain is known to be a common complication of thoracic surgery and has been associated with a lower quality of life, increased healthcare utilisation, substantial direct and indirect costs, and increased long-term use of opioids. This systematic review with meta-analysis aimed to identify and summarise the evidence of all prognostic factors for chronic post-surgical pain after lung and pleural surgery. Electronic databases were searched for retrospective and prospective observational studies as well as randomised controlled trials that included patients undergoing lung or pleural surgery and reported on prognostic factors for chronic post-surgical pain. We included 56 studies resulting in 45 identified prognostic factors, of which 16 were pooled with a meta-analysis. Prognostic factors that increased chronic post-surgical pain risk were as follows: higher postoperative pain intensity (day 1, 0-10 score), mean difference (95%CI) 1.29 (0.62-1.95), p < 0.001; pre-operative pain, odds ratio (95%CI) 2.86 (1.94-4.21), p < 0.001; and longer surgery duration (in minutes), mean difference (95%CI) 12.07 (4.99-19.16), p < 0.001. Prognostic factors that decreased chronic post-surgical pain risk were as follows: intercostal nerve block, odds ratio (95%CI) 0.76 (0.61-0.95) p = 0.018 and video-assisted thoracic surgery, 0.54 (0.43-0.66) p < 0.001. Trial sequential analysis was used to adjust for type 1 and type 2 errors of statistical analysis and confirmed adequate power for these prognostic factors. In contrast to other studies, we found that age had no significant effect on chronic post-surgical pain and there was not enough evidence to conclude on sex. Meta-regression did not reveal significant effects of any of the study covariates on the prognostic factors with a significant effect on chronic post-surgical pain. Expressed as grading of recommendations, assessment, development and evaluations criteria, the certainty of evidence was high for pre-operative pain and video-assisted thoracic surgery, moderate for intercostal nerve block and surgery duration and low for postoperative pain intensity. We thus identified actionable factors which can be addressed to attempt to reduce the risk of chronic post-surgical pain after lung surgery.

Delirium in neurosurgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Delirium is a frequent occurring complication in surgical patients. Nevertheless, a scientific work-up of the clinical relevance of delirium after intracranial surgery is lacking. We conducted a systematic review (CRD42020166656) to evaluate the current diagnostic work-up, incidence, risk factors and health outcomes of delirium in this population. Five databases (Embase, Medline, Web of Science, PsycINFO, Cochrane Central) were searched from inception through March 31st, 2021. Twenty-four studies (5589 patients) were included for qualitative analysis and twenty-one studies for quantitative analysis (5083 patients). Validated delirium screening tools were used in 70% of the studies, consisting of the Confusion Assessment Method (intensive care unit) (45%), Delirium Observation Screening Scale (5%), Intensive Care Delirium Screening Checklist (10%), Neelon and Champagne Confusion Scale (5%) and Nursing Delirium Screening Scale (5%). Incidence of post-operative delirium after intracranial surgery was 19%, ranging from 12 to 26% caused by variation in clinical features and delirium assessment methods. Meta-regression for age and gender did not show a correlation with delirium. We present an overview of risk factors and health outcomes associated with the onset of delirium. Our review highlights the need of future research on delirium in neurosurgery, which should focus on optimizing diagnosis and assessing prognostic significance and management.

A systematic review and trial sequential analysis of intravenous vs. oral peri-operative paracetamol.

Postoperative pain might be different after intravenous vs. oral paracetamol. We systematically reviewed randomised controlled trials in patients >15 years that compared intravenous with oral paracetamol for postoperative pain. We identified 14 trials with 1695 participants. There was inconclusive evidence for an effect of route of paracetamol administration on postoperative pain at 0-2 h (734 participants), 2-6 h (766 participants), 6-24 h (1115 participants) and >24 h (248 participants), with differences in standardised mean (95%CI) pain scores for intravenous vs. oral of -0.17 (-0.45 to 0.10), -0.09 (-0.24 to 0.06), 0.06 (-0.12 to 0.23) and 0.03 (-0.22 to 0.28), respectively. Trial sequential analyses suggested that a total of 3948 participants would be needed to demonstrate a meaningful difference in pain or its absence at 0-2 h. There were no differences in secondary outcomes. Intravenous paracetamol is more expensive than oral paracetamol. Substitution of oral paracetamol in half the patients given intravenous paracetamol in our hospital would save around £ 38,711 (€ 43,960 or US$ 47,498) per annum.

A systematic review of phenylephrine vs. noradrenaline for the management of hypotension associated with neuraxial anaesthesia in women undergoing caesarean section.

Phenylephrine is recommended for the management of hypotension after spinal anaesthesia in women undergoing caesarean section. Noradrenaline, an adrenergic agonist with weak ß-adrenergic activity, has been reported to have a more favourable haemodynamic profile than phenylephrine. However, there are concerns that noradrenaline may be associated with a higher risk of fetal acidosis, defined as an umbilical artery pH < 7.20. We performed a systematic review of trials comparing noradrenaline with phenylephrine, concentrating on primary outcomes of fetal acidosis and maternal hypotension. We identified 13 randomised controlled trials including 2002 patients. Heterogeneity among the studies was high, and there were too few data to calculate a pooled effect estimate. Fetal acidosis was assessed in four studies that had a low risk of bias and a low risk of confounding, that is, studies which used a prophylactic vasopressor and where women received the allocated vasopressor only. There were no significant differences between these studies. No significant differences were observed for hypotension. Two trials found a significantly lower incidence of bradycardia when using noradrenaline. Cardiac output was significantly higher after noradrenaline in two of three studies. For other secondary outcomes including nausea, vomiting and Apgar scores at 1 and 5 min, no studies found significant differences. The evidence so far is too limited to support an advantage of noradrenaline over phenylephrine. Concerns of a deleterious effect of noradrenaline on fetal blood gas status cannot currently be assuaged by the available data from randomised controlled studies.

Variation in the practice of tracheal intubation in Europe after traumatic brain injury: a prospective cohort study.

Traumatic brain injury patients frequently undergo tracheal intubation. We aimed to assess current intubation practice in Europe and identify variation in practice. We analysed data from patients with traumatic brain injury included in the prospective cohort study collaborative European neurotrauma effectiveness research in traumatic brain injury (CENTER-TBI) in 45 centres in 16 European countries. We included patients who were transported to hospital by emergency medical services. We used mixed-effects multinomial regression to quantify the effects on pre-hospital or in-hospital tracheal intubation of the following: patient characteristics; injury characteristics; centre; and trauma system characteristics. A total of 3843 patients were included. Of these, 1322 (34%) had their tracheas intubated; 839 (22%) pre-hospital and 483 (13%) in-hospital. The fit of the model with only patient characteristics predicting intubation was good (Nagelkerke R2 64%). The probability of tracheal intubation increased with the following: younger age; lower pre-hospital or emergency department GCS; higher abbreviated injury scale scores (head and neck, thorax and chest, face or abdomen abbreviated injury score); and one or more unreactive pupils. The adjusted median odds ratio for intubation between two randomly chosen centres was 3.1 (95%CI 2.1-4.3) for pre-hospital intubation, and 2.7 (95%CI 1.9-3.5) for in-hospital intubation. Furthermore, the presence of an anaesthetist was independently associated with more pre-hospital intubation (OR 2.9, 95%CI 1.3-6.6), in contrast to the presence of ambulance personnel who are allowed to intubate (OR 0.5, 95%CI 0.3-0.8). In conclusion, patient and injury characteristics are key drivers of tracheal intubation. Between-centre differences were also substantial. Further studies are needed to improve the evidence base supporting recommendations for tracheal intubation.

Effect of intravenous dexamethasone on postoperative pain after spinal anaesthesia - a systematic review with meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis.

There are data suggesting that intravenous dexamethasone has an effect on postoperative analgesia when given during single-shot spinal anaesthesia. However, the research literature is equivocal. We performed a systematic literature search followed by conventional meta-analysis (random effects model). We used trial sequential analysis to control for type-1 and -2 statistical errors. We also performed a leave-one-out meta-analysis for our primary outcome, the consumption of intravenous morphine in the first 24 postoperative hours. We applied the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system to rate the level of evidence. We obtained data from 1133 patients, reported in 17 trials. Reporting quality was high, with low risk of bias. Dexamethasone use was associated with a significant reduction in 24-h morphine consumption, the mean difference (95%CI) being -4.01 (-5.01 to -3.01) mg, 6 trials, 326 participants, I2 = 0%. Trial sequential analysis showed that there was firm evidence for the primary outcome, and leave-one-out meta-analysis showed that our result was not driven by one single trial. The GRADE evaluation showed a high level of evidence, suggesting that further studies are unlikely to alter the result. The time to first analgesic request (95%CI) was significantly prolonged by 86.62 (10.62-162.62) min, I2 = 93%, in the dexamethasone group. For other secondary outcomes including number of patients requiring rescue analgesia, or visual analogue scale pain scores, we found no evidence of a significant difference between the treatment arms. We report a high level of evidence that intravenous dexamethasone improves postoperative analgesia after spinal anaesthesia.

Co-administration of dexamethasone with peripheral nerve block: intravenous vs perineural application: systematic review, meta-analysis, meta-regression and trial-sequential analysis.

BACKGROUND: I.V. and perineural dexamethasone have both been found to prolong loco-regional analgesia compared with controls without dexamethasone. It is unclear whether perineural administration offers advantages when compared with i.v. dexamethasone. METHODS: A systematic literature search was performed to identify randomized controlled double-blind trials that compared i.v. with perineural dexamethasone in patients undergoing surgery. Using the random effects model, risk ratio (for binary variables), weighted mean difference (for continuous variables) and 95% confidence intervals were calculated. We applied trial sequential analysis to assess the risks of type I and II error, meta-regression for the study of the doseresponsive relationship, and the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation system. RESULTS: We identified 10 randomized controlled double-blind trials (783 patients). When using conventional meta-analysis of nine low risk of bias trials, we found a statistically significantly longer duration of analgesia, our primary outcome with perineural dexamethasone (241 min, 95%CI, 87, 394 min). When trial sequential analysis was applied, this result was confirmed. Meta-regression did not show a dose-response relationship. Despite the precision in the results, using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation system (GRADE), we assessed the quality of the evidence for our primary outcome as low. CONCLUSIONS: There is evidence that perineural dexamethasone prolongs the duration of analgesia compared with i.v. dexamethasone. Using GRADE, this evidence is low quality.

Combined spinal-epidural vs. spinal anaesthesia for caesarean section: meta-analysis and trial-sequential analysis.

Combined spinal-epidural and single-shot spinal anaesthesia are both used for caesarean section. It has been claimed in individual trials that combined spinal-epidural is associated with higher sensory spread and greater cardiovascular stability. We set out to gather all available evidence. We performed: a systematic literature search to identify randomised controlled trials comparing combined spinal-epidural with spinal anaesthesia for caesarean section: conventional meta-analysis; trial-sequential analysis; and assessment of trial quality using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) system. Fifteen trials with high heterogeneity, including 1015 patients, were analysed. There was no significant difference between combined spinal-epidural and spinal anaesthesia for our primary outcomes maximum sensory height and vasopressor use (mg ephedrine equivalents). However, trial-sequential analysis suggested insufficient data and the GRADE scores showed 'very low' quality of evidence for these outcomes. The secondary outcomes hypotension, time for sensory block to recede to the level of T10, and the combined outcome of nausea and vomiting, did not differ significantly between the interventions. The block times were statistically significantly longer for combined spinal-epidural in individual trials, but only one trial showed a clinically meaningful difference (11 min). Based on this analysis, and taking into consideration all comparisons irrespective of whether drugs had been applied via the epidural route, there is not enough evidence to postulate any advantage compared with the spinal technique. Future analyses and studies need to examine the potential advantages of the combined spinal-epidural technique by using the epidural route intra- and/or postoperatively.

Effects of epidural volume extension by saline injection on the efficacy and safety of intrathecal local anaesthetics: systematic review with meta-analysis, meta-regression and trial sequential analysis.

Epidural volume extension, a modification of combined spinal-epidural anaesthesia, involves the epidural injection of saline in order to increase the spread of drugs given intrathecally. Results from individual studies have so far been contradictory and we aimed to gather the available evidence for this technique. We performed a systematic literature search for randomised, controlled trials comparing epidural volume extension after spinal injection with a control group without epidural injection in patients undergoing surgery. Conventional meta-analyses, trial sequential analyses and meta-regression were performed, with the Grading of Recommendations on Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach used to express reliability of outcome estimates. We included 15 studies with 1177 participants. Meta-analyses for the primary outcomes, such as maximum sensory height (6 studies, 274 participants, mean difference (MD) (95%CI) -0.59 (-1.24 to 0.07) dermatomes, low-quality evidence) and hypotension (10 studies, 683 participants, risk ratio (95%CI) 0.84 (0.66-1.07), low-quality evidence), did not differ significantly between the two treatment arms, but trial sequential analysis suggested insufficient evidence to be certain of these findings. Meta-regression suggested a volume-dependent effect, with higher volumes causing a higher spread of intrathecal drugs and a higher incidence of hypotension. A sub-group analysis indicated a pronounced effect on motor block recovery time when a lower anaesthetic dose plus epidural volume extension was compared with a higher anaesthetic dose without epidural volume extension, the MD (95%CI) being -66.75 (-76.0 to -57.5) min, with trial sequential analysis suggesting the evidence was sufficient to draw this conclusion. In trials using the same anaesthetic mixture in the epidural volume extension and the control groups, motor block recovery time did not differ between groups, with a MD (95%CI) of -1.06 (-5.48 to 3.36) min, although trial sequential analysis suggested insufficient evidence. In summary, there is not enough evidence to draw definite conclusions on the effect of epidural volume extension. The quality of the current evidence is low for both efficacy (maximum sensory height) and safety (hypotension). However, there may be a significantly shorter motor block recovery time when different anaesthetic mixtures are used in epidural volume extension and control groups; this warrants further investigation.

Paravertebral block and persistent postoperative pain after breast surgery: meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis.

We examined whether paravertebral block has an effect on the prevalence of persistent postsurgical pain after breast surgery. Seven randomised, controlled trials (559 patients) which had the outcome assessor blinded were included, comparing patients who received paravertebral blocks after breast surgery with patients who did not. The risk ratio (95% CI) was 0.75 (0.48-1.15) for the incidence of postoperative pain at 3 months (four studies, 317 patients); the risk ratio (95% CI) obtained from three studies including 301 patients reporting on pain after 6 months was 0.57 (0.29-1.72), and the risk ratio (95% CI) for pain after 12 months (three trials, 237 patients) was 0.42 (0.15-1.23). Conventional meta-analysis using the random effects model thus showed no statistically significant risk reduction for persistent postoperative pain at 3 months, 6 months or 12 months. Trial sequential analysis, used to consider the risk of type 1 and type 2 random error, showed that at 3 months, 6 months and 12 months, the number of subjects in the analyses were only 18.3%, 6.8% and 4.2% of the required information sizes at those time points, respectively. Our study is the first to evaluate data on pain 12 months postoperatively. Trial sequential analysis revealed that the current evidence is not sufficient to reach a conclusion. These findings stand in contrast to previous meta-analyses with fewer studies that had concluded that paravertebral block effectively reduces chronic pain.

[A guide to successful public relations for hospitals and emergency medical services]. / Anleitung zur erfolgreichen Medienarbeit für Krankenhäuser und Rettungsdienste.

Tragic accidents, e.g. involving celebrity patients or severe incidents in hospital occur suddenly without any advance warning, often produce substantial interest by the media and quickly overburden management personnel involved in both hospitals and emergency medical services. While doctors, hospitals and emergency medical services desire objective media reports, the media promote emotionalized and dramatized reports to ensure maximum attention and circulation. When briefing the media, the scales may quickly tilt from professional, well-deliberated information to unfortunate, often unintended disinformation. Such phenomena may result in continuing exaggerated reports in the tabloid press, which in the presence of aggressive lawyers and a competitive hospital environment can turn into image and legal problems. In this article, several aspects are discussed in order to achieve successful public relations.Interviews should be given only after consultation with the responsible press officer and the director of the respective department or hospital director. Requests for information by the media should always be answered as otherwise one-sided, unintentional publications can result that are extremely difficult to correct later. One should be available to be contacted easily by journalists, regular press conferences should be held and critics should be taken seriously and not be brushed off. Questions by journalists should be answered in a timely manner as journalists are continuously under time pressure and do not understand unnecessary delays. Information for the media should always be provided at the same time, no publication should be given preference and an absolutely current list of E-mail contacts is required. When facing big events a press conference is preferred as many questions can be answered at once. Always be well prepared for an interview or even for just a statement. Each interview should be regarded as an opportunity to put a story forward which you wanted to do for a long time and your message should not contain more than three main points.Each hospital or emergency medical service should have a professional department for public relations, an exact knowledge of the regional and national media and strategies how to handle an incident that is of interest for the media. The media should be provided with information not only when a negative incident has happened but should be provided with regular positive messages as well. An interview must be carefully prepared to achieve a good image.

Music to prevent deliriUm during neuroSurgerY (MUSYC): a single-centre, prospective randomised controlled trial.

OBJECTIVES: Delirium is a serious complication following neurosurgical procedures. We hypothesise that the beneficial effect of music on a combination of delirium-eliciting factors might reduce delirium incidence following neurosurgery and subsequently improve clinical outcomes. DESIGN: Prospective randomised controlled trial. SETTING: Single centre, conducted at the neurosurgical department of the Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. PARTICIPANTS: Adult patients undergoing craniotomy were eligible. INTERVENTIONS: Patients in the intervention group received preferred recorded music before, during and after the operation until day 3 after surgery. Patients in the control group were treated according to standard of clinical care. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary outcome was presence or absence of postoperative delirium within the first 5 postoperative days measured with the Delirium Observation Screening Scale (DOSS) and, in case of a daily mean score of 3 or higher, a psychiatric evaluation with the latest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) criteria. Secondary outcomes included anxiety, heart rate variability (HRV), depth of anaesthesia, delirium severity and duration, postoperative complications, length of stay and location of discharge. RESULTS: We enrolled 189 patients (music=95, control=94) from July 2020 through September 2021. Delirium, as assessed by the DOSS, was less common in the music (n=11, 11.6%) than in the control group (n=21, 22.3%, OR:0.49, p=0.048). However, after DSM-5 confirmation, differences in delirium were not significant (4.2% vs 7.4%, OR:0.47, p=0.342). Moreover, music increased the HRV (root mean square of successive differences between normal heartbeats, p=0.012). All other secondary outcomes were not different between groups. CONCLUSION: Our results support the efficacy of music in reducing the incidence of delirium after craniotomy, as found with DOSS but not after DSM-5 confirmation, substantiated by the effect of music on preoperative autonomic tone. Delirium screening tools should be validated and the long-term implications should be evaluated after craniotomy. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: Trialregister.nl: NL8503 and ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04649450.

General anaesthesia is associated with adverse cardiac outcome after endovascular aneurysm repair.

OBJECTIVES: Endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) is associated with reduced cardiac stress compared with open repair and is an attractive therapeutic option, especially in cardiac fragile patients. General and locoregional anaesthesia differ regarding the stress response evoked by surgery. The aim of the study is to compare the incidence of cardiac events after EVAR under general or locoregional anaesthesia. METHODS: A total of 302 consecutive patients undergoing infrarenal EVAR between 2002 and 2011 were analysed in this retrospective cohort study. Selection of anaesthesia type was at the discretion of the treating physicians. Medical history, medication use, anaesthesia technique and follow-up were obtained. The study end point was 30-day cardiac complications, including cardiac death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, heart failure, ventricular arrhythmia and troponin T release. Multivariable analysis, adjusted for the propensity of receiving a locoregional technique and cardiac risk factors according to the Revised Cardiac Risk Index, was used to assess the association between cardiac events and anaesthesia type. RESULTS: A total of 173 patients underwent general anaesthesia and 129 locoregional anaesthesia. Obesity, aspirin use and therapeutic anticoagulation were more common in patients receiving general anaesthesia. Cardiac events were observed in 13.3% of patients receiving general anaesthesia and in 4.7% of patients receiving locoregional anaesthesia (P = 0.02), or 6.4% versus .8% (P = 0.02) when asymptomatic troponin release is excluded from the end point. In the general anaesthesia group, two cardiac deaths, six non-fatal myocardial infarctions, two cases of non-fatal heart failure, one non-fatal cardiac arrest and 12 cases of troponin T release were observed, compared with one myocardial infarction and five cases of troponin T release in the locoregional anaesthesia group. In multivariable analysis, general anaesthesia was associated with adverse cardiac events (odds ratio (OR) 3.8; 95%-confidence interval (CI) 1.1-12.9). Non-cardiac complications occurred in 11.6% of patients in both groups (P = 1.00). CONCLUSION: General anaesthesia was associated with an increased risk of cardiac events in EVAR, compared with locoregional anaesthesia.