Noninvasive Ventilation After Thoracoabdominal Aortic Surgery: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the beneficial effects of noninvasive ventilation in treating postoperative pulmonary complications in patients undergoing thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm (TAAA) open repair surgery. DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial. SETTING: University tertiary-care hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Forty patients who underwent elective TAAA open repair. INTERVENTIONS: Patients were randomized to the "noninvasive ventilation" group, receiving 2-hour cycles of noninvasive ventilation every 8 hours for at least 3 days in addition to the best available postoperative treatment currently in use at the authors' institution versus the "standard" group, not receiving noninvasive ventilation treatment MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The primary outcome of clinical worsening, described as a composite outcome of need for therapeutic noninvasive ventilation, need for mechanical ventilation owing to respiratory causes, need for intensive care unit admission owing to respiratory causes, and in-hospital mortality, occurred in 2 (11%) patients in the noninvasive ventilation group versus 12 (57%) in the standard group (p = 0.002; relative risk 0.18; 95% confidence interval 0.047-0.72). CONCLUSION: Noninvasive ventilation is a promising, affordable, and easy-to-use tool to prevent postoperative respiratory complications after TAAA open surgical repair.

The Brachiocephalic Vein as a Safe and Viable Alternative to Internal Jugular Vein for Central Venous Cannulation.

BACKGROUND: Although many studies have compared success and complication rates for central line insertion sites with and without ultrasound, few have examined the use of the brachiocephalic vein for central venous access. The aim of this study was to describe the brachiocephalic vein as an alternative site for elective ultrasound vascular cannulation in adults, and to compare it with the more commonly used internal jugular vein site in terms of procedural difficulties, first pass failure rate, overall failure rate, and safety. METHODS: In this single-center, retrospective cohort study, clinical data from consecutive adult patients undergoing elective ultrasound-guided central venous catheterization of upper body were retrieved from the department database. All of these central venous catheters were requested by department team, none was positioned for surgery. Seven hundred nine patients underwent central venous catheterization via the internal jugular approach and 285 patients via the brachiocephalic route. Patients catheterized via the brachiocephalic vein approach were then compared with those catheterized via the internal jugular vein in terms of ease of catheterization, success rate, and complications. Differences between approaches were assessed by univariate analyses and multivariable analysis. RESULTS: Overall, 994 patients underwent central venous catheterization. A total of 87% had a successful catheter implantation at the first attempt, 6.7% of insertions were difficult, 5.7% were complicated, and 3.4% failed. Procedural difficulty was more frequent with the internal jugular than with the brachiocephalic approach (odds ratio, 0.38; 95% confidence interval, 0.19-0.76; P = .007) after correction for potential confounders. Differences between groups in complication rate (6.3% vs 4.1%) or failure rate (3.4% vs 3.5%) were not significant. CONCLUSIONS: Brachiocephalic cannulation is a reasonable alternative to ultrasound-guided internal jugular vein catheterization.

Minimum effective anesthetic concentration (MEAC) for sciatic nerve block: subgluteus and popliteal approaches.

BACKGROUND: We tested the hypothesis that using a subgluteus approach to the sciatic nerve requires a lower concentration of mepivacaine to obtain complete anesthesia as compared with the popliteal approach. METHODS: With midazolam premedication (0.05 mg kg(-1) iv), 48 patients undergoing hallux valgus repair were randomly allocated to receive a sciatic nerve block using either a posterior popliteal (group Popliteal, n = 24) or subgluteus (group Subgluteus, n = 24) approach with 30 mL of local anesthetic injected after elicitation of plantar flexion of the foot with a current