Saddle block anesthetic technique for benign outpatient anorectal surgery.

Background: Current American Society of Colorectal Surgery Clinical Practice Guidelines for Ambulatory Anorectal Surgery endorse use of monitored anesthesia care, general anesthesia, or spinal anesthesia based on physician and patient preference. Although several studies support the use of monitored anesthesia care over general anesthesia, the literature regarding spinal anesthesia is limited and heterogenous due to small sample sizes and disparate spinal anesthesia techniques. Saddle block anesthesia is a form of spinal anesthesia that localizes to the lowermost sacral spinal segments allowing for preservation of lower extremity motor function and faster recovery.

Influence of alpha-adrenergic blockade on the catecholamine response to exercise at 4,300 meters.

This investigation examined the influence of alpha-adrenergic blockade on plasma and urinary catecholamine responses to both exercise and high-altitude exposure. Sixteen nonsmoking, eumenorrheic women (age 23.2 +/- 1.

Five weeks of insulin-like growth factor-I treatment does not alter glucose kinetics or insulin sensitivity during a hyperglycemic clamp in older women.

Insulin sensitivity and the activity of the hypothalamic-growth hormone (GH)- insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) axis both decline with age. Treatment with IGF-I increases insulin sensitivity in healthy young subjects. We hypothesized that increasing plasma IGF-I in postmenopausal women to levels characteristic of young women would enhance insulin sensitivity.

Speech motor control and acute mountain sickness.

Background: An objective method that accurately quantifies the severity of Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) symptoms is needed to enable more reliable evaluation of altitude acclimatization and testing of potentially beneficial interventions.

Hypothesis: Changes in human articulation, as quantified by timed variations in acoustic waveforms of specific spoken words (voice onset time; VOT), are correlated with the severity of AMS.

Methods: Fifteen volunteers were exposed to a simulated altitude of 4300 m (446 mm Hg) in a hypobaric chamber for 48 h.