The effect of videotaped preoperative information on parental anxiety during anesthesia induction for elective pediatric procedures.

Background: The purpose of this study was to determine whether audiovisual information, describing the process of undergoing and recovering from anesthesia, could reduce anxiety levels in parents before their child's induction of anesthesia.

Methods: One hundred and eleven parents were recruited into this study. Of these 56 were randomized to a control group and 55 to an intervention group.

Death potentially secondary to sub-Tenon's block.

An 82-year-old ASA 2 patient underwent routine sub-Tenon's block for cataract surgery. One minute after injection of the local anaesthetic, the patient had a generalised tonic-clonic seizure and developed refractory ventricular fibrillation; subsequent resuscitation was unsuccessful. With no evidence for intravascular injection, the lack of structural brain abnormalities, and the most striking feature on post mortem examination being severe triple vessel coronary artery disease, it was concluded that this was primarily cardiac in origin; however, the possibility of brainstem anaesthesia should also be considered.

Evaluating an osteoporosis service using a focus group.

Evaluation of any service should determine whether the service meets patients' perceived needs as well as their identified medical needs. This article describes the use of a focus group to evaluate a service for women with a diagnosis of osteoporosis.