The effects of femoral nerve blockade in conjunction with epidural analgesia after total knee arthroplasty.

Either epidural analgesia or femoral nerve blockade improves analgesia and rehabilitation after total knee arthroplasty. No study has evaluated the combination of femoral nerve blockade and epidural analgesia. In this prospective, randomized, blinded study we investigated combining femoral nerve blockade with epidural analgesia.

Inhibition by propofol of intracellular calcium mobilization in cultured mouse pituitary cells.

Unlabelled: Propofol inhibited regulated secretion of the neuropeptide beta-endorphin from AtT-20 cells, a pituitary tumor cell line. Neuropeptide secretion depends on an increase of intracellular calcium (Ca(2+)) levels. We investigated the hypothesis that propofol altered intracellular Ca(2+) levels in AtT-20 cells.

Ketamine stimulates secretion of beta-endorphin from a mouse pituitary cell line.

Background And Objectives: beta-endorphin is an endogenous opioid that mediates pain-induced analgesia. Propofol inhibits in vitro secretion of beta-endorphin from a mouse pituitary cell line (AtT-20). We hypothesized that ketamine would also alter secretion of beta-endorphin.