General Anesthesia Versus Local Anesthesia in Carotid Endarterectomy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

OBJECTIVE: The choice of anesthetic technique in carotid endarterectomy (CEA) has been controversial. This study compared the outcomes of general anesthesia (GA) and local anesthesia (LA) in CEA. DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analysis of comparative studies. SETTING: Hospitals. PARTICIPANTS: Adult patients undergoing CEA with either LA or GA. INTERVENTIONS: The effects of GA and LA on CEA outcomes were compared. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: PubMed, OVID, Scopus, and Embase were searched to June 2018. Thirty-one studies with 152,376 patients were analyzed. A random effect model was used, and heterogeneity was assessed with the I2 and chi-square tests. LA was associated with shorter surgical time (weighted mean difference -9.15 min [-15.55 to -2.75]; p = 0.005) and less stroke (odds ratio [OR] 0.76 [0.62-0.92]; p = 0.006), cardiac complications (OR 0.59 [0.47-0.73]; p < 0.00001), and in-hospital mortality (OR 0.72 [0.59-0.90]; p = 0.003). Transient neurologic deficit rates were similar (OR 0.69 [0.46-1.04]; p = 0.07). Heterogeneity was significant for surgical time (I2 = 0.99, chi-square = 1,336.04; p < 0.00001), transient neurologic deficit (I2 = 0.41, chi-square = 28.81; p = 0.04), and cardiac complications (I2 = 0.42, chi-square = 43.32; p = 0.01) but not for stroke (I2 = 0.22, chi-square = 30.72; p = 0.16) and mortality (I2 = 0.00, chi-square = 21.69; p = 0.65). Randomized controlled trial subgroup analysis was performed, and all the aforementioned variables were not significantly different or heterogenous. CONCLUSION: The results from this study showed no inferiority of using LA to GA in patients undergoing CEA. Future investigations should be reported more systematically, preferably with randomization or propensity-matched analysis, and thus registries will facilitate investigation of this subject. Anesthetic choice in CEA should be individualized and encouraged where applicable.

Comparative Effectiveness, Safety, and Real-World Outcomes of a Nurse-Led, Protocol-Driven Penicillin Allergy Evaluation From the Hong Kong Drug Allergy Delabelling Initiative (HK-DADI).

BACKGROUND: There is a high prevalence of unconfirmed penicillin allergy, which is associated with a multitude of adverse clinical outcomes. With the overwhelming burden of currently incorrect labels and the lack of allergy specialist services, new delabeling strategies are urgently needed. OBJECTIVE: To assess the effectiveness, safety, and real-world outcomes of a nurse-led, protocol-driven evaluation of penicillin allergy, the Hong Kong Drug Allergy Delabelling Initiative (HK-DADI). METHODS: Adult patients with suspected penicillin allergy were recruited into HK-DADI. Allergy and postdelabeling outcomes were retrospectively compared between patients evaluated via HK-DADI or traditional allergist evaluation. RESULTS: A total of 312 completed penicillin allergy evaluation: 84 (27%) and 228 (73%) via HK-DADI and traditional pathways, respectively. Overall, 280 penicillin allergies were delabeled (90%). The delabeling rate between HK-DADI and traditional pathways was similar (90% vs 89%; P = .796). Among patients of the HK-DADI pathway, the delabeling rate was significantly higher among low-risk (LR) compared with non-LR patients (97% vs 77%; P = .010). Skin tests did not add diagnostic value among LR patients. No patients developed severe or systemic reactions during the evaluation. Upon 6- to 12-month follow-up (median, 10 months), 123 patients experienced infective episodes (44%) and 63 used penicillins again after delabeling (23%). This proportion was significantly higher in patients who were delabeled via HK-DADI compared with the traditional pathway (32% vs 19%; P = .026). CONCLUSIONS: The Hong Kong Drug Allergy Delabelling Initiative, a nurse-led, protocol-driven evaluation, was safe and effective in penicillin allergy delabeling. It led to an even higher rate of future penicillin use after delabeling and mitigated the need for unnecessary skin testing among LR patients.

In vivo verification of superficial dose for head and neck treatments using intensity-modulated techniques.

Skin dose is one of the key issues for clinical dosimetry in radiation therapy. Currently planning computer systems are unable to accurately predict dose in the buildup region, leaving ambiguity as to the dose levels actually received by the patient's skin during radiotherapy. This is one of the prime reasons why in vivo measurements are necessary to estimate the dose in the buildup region. A newly developed metal-oxide-semiconductor-field-effect-transistor (MOSFET) detector designed specifically for dose measurements in rapidly changing dose gradients was introduced for accurate in vivo skin dosimetry. The feasibility of this detector for skin dose measurements was verified in comparison with plane parallel ionization chamber and radiochromic films. The accuracy of a commercial treatment planning system (TPS) in skin dose calculations for intensity-modulated radiation therapy treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma was evaluated using MOSFET detectors in an anthropomorphic phantom as well as on the patients. Results show that this newly developed MOSFET detector can provide a minimal but highly reproducible intrinsic buildup of 7 mg cm(-2) corresponding to the requirements of personal surface dose equivalent Hp (0.07). The reproducibility of the MOSFET response, in high sensitivity mode, is found to be better than 2% at the phantom surface for the doses normally delivered to the patients. The MOSFET detector agrees well with the Attix chamber and the EBT Gafchromic film in terms of surface and buildup region dose measurements, even for oblique incident beams. While the dose difference between MOSFET measurements and TPS calculations is within measurement uncertainty for the depths equal to or greater than 0.5 cm, an overestimation of up to 8.5% was found for the surface dose calculations in the anthropomorphic phantom study. In vivo skin dose measurements reveal that the dose difference between the MOSFET results and the TPS calculations was on average -7.2%, ranging from -4.3% to -9.2%. The newly designed MOSFET detector encapsulated into a thin water protective film has a minimal reproducible intrinsic buildup recommended for skin dosimetry. This feature makes it very suitable for routine IMRT QA and accurate in vivo skin dosimetry.