The effects of oral transmucosal fentanyl citrate premedication on preoperative behavioral responses and gastric volume and acidity in children.

The authors compared the safety, efficacy, and effects on gastric volume and pH of oral transmucosal fentanyl citrate (OTFC) premedication and of placebo lollipop and no premedication in 55 children undergoing elective operations. The patients were randomly assigned to receive no premedication (group A, N = 18); OTFC containing 15-20 micrograms/kg of fentanyl citrate (group B, N = 18); or a placebo lollipop (group C, N = 19). Activity (sedation) and anxiety scores, vital signs (including systolic and diastolic arterial blood pressures, heart and respiratory rates), and pulse oximetry determined oxygen saturation were measured before and at 10-min intervals after premedication until the patients were taken to the operating room.

Effects of inhalation anaesthetics on filtration of venous gas emboli by the pulmonary vasculature.

Venous gas emboli are prevented from reaching the systemic circulation by filtration in the pulmonary vasculature. This filtration can be overwhelmed by exceeding certain critical rates of venous air infusion. To characterize further these filtration phenomena, the effects of pentobarbitone, isoflurane and halothane anaesthesia on the incidence of spillover of venous bubbles into the arteries were studied in groups of nine dogs.

A comparison of different methods of lubrication of glass syringes used to identify the epidural space.

Measurement of loss of resistance in glass syringes is a method widely used to locate the epidural space in epidural anaesthesia. Static and dynamic forces were measured under four experimental conditions in new glass syringes: unpolished, dry; polished, dry; unpolished, saline lubricated; and polished, saline lubricated. The unpolished saline lubricated syringes had a mean (SD) static force of 53.