Anesthetists and Surgeons Predict Postoperative Pain.

Purpose: Nurses, surgeons and anesthetists are responsible for the management of postoperative pain. This study aimed to investigate surgeons', surgical residents', anesthesiologists', and anesthetic residents' predictions of patients' postoperative pain and satisfaction with pain management, compared to patients' postoperative ratings.

Design: The bias and limits of agreement between physician and patient ratings of postoperative pain were compared.

Agreement of clinical measurements of liver size with ultrasound when performed by medical students.

Aim: The accuracy of physical examination techniques in detecting liver disease is unclear. We sought to determine the perceived location of the lower liver border via scratch, percussion, palpation and ballottement with novice medical student examiners, compared with ultrasound localisation.

Method: Five novice medical students learnt four liver examination techniques and measured the lower liver border in 19 healthy volunteers.

The repeated sit-to-stand maneuver is a superior method for cardiac baroreflex assessment: a comparison with the modified Oxford method and Valsalva maneuver.

Baroreflex assessment has diagnostic and prognostic utility in the clinical and research environments, and there is a need for a reliable, simple, noninvasive method of assessment. The repeated sit-to-stand method induces oscillatory changes in blood pressure (BP) at a desired frequency and is suitable for assessing dynamic baroreflex sensitivity (BRS). However, little is known about the reliability of this method and its ability to discern fundamental properties of the baroreflex.

Cardiac baroreflex gain is frequency dependent: insights from repeated sit-to-stand maneuvers and the modified Oxford method.

Cardiac baroreflex gain is usually quantified as the reflex alteration in heart rate during changes in blood pressure without considering the effect of the rate of change in blood pressure on the estimated gain. This study sought to (i) characterize baroreflex gain as a function of blood pressure oscillation frequencies using a repeat sit-to-stand method and (ii) compare baroreflex gain values obtained using the sit-to-stand method against the modified Oxford method. Fifteen healthy individuals underwent the repeated sit-to-stand method in which blood pressure oscillations were driven at 0.

Current definitions for neonatal apnoea: are they evidence based?

Apnoea is defined as cessation of breathing with implicit pathophysiology. This review considers definitions of neonatal apnoea currently available and explores the evidence to support their use. For preterm and term infants, apnoea definitions appear arbitrary, are not supported by guidelines and vary from study to study.