Hypercarbia and high-flow nasal oxygen use during anaesthesia - risking a failure to thrive?

Prevention of arterial oxygen desaturation during anaesthesia with high-flow nasal oxygen (HFNO) has gained greater acceptance for a widening range of procedures. However, during HFNO use there remains the potential for development of significant anaesthesia-associated apnoea or hypoventilation and the possibility of hypercarbia, with harmful cardiovascular or neurological sequelae. The aim of this study was to determine whether any HFNO-related hypercarbia adverse incidents had been reported on webAIRS, an online database of adverse anaesthesia-related incidents.

Clinical implications of opioid-induced ventilatory impairment.

Opioid-induced ventilatory impairment is the primary mechanism of harm from opioid use. Opioids suppress the activity of the central respiratory centres and are sedating, leading to impairment of alveolar ventilation.Respiratory physiological changes induced with acute opioid use include depression of the hypercapnic ventilatory response and hypoxic ventilatory response.

Opioids in acute pain: Towards getting the right balance.

Misuse of prescription opioids forced an inevitable response from authorities to intervene with consequences felt by all.In the Australian community one person will die for approximately every 3600 adults prescribed opioids, while in the hospital setting a postoperative patient managed primarily with opioids, as opposed to epidural analgesia, has an additional risk of death as high as between one in 56 to 477.Opioids maintain a valid role in acute pain management when use is reasoned and with full awareness of the harms and how they are to be avoided, such as in those at risk of ongoing use, the opioid naïve, and when opioid-induced ventilatory impairment may occur.

Is femoral nerve block necessary during total knee arthroplasty?: a randomized controlled trial.

There remains a lack of randomized controlled trials comparing methods of perioperative analgesia for total knee arthroplasty. To address this deficiency, a blinded, randomized controlled trial was conducted to compare the use of femoral nerve block (group F) and local anesthetic (group L). A sample of 55 patients who met the inclusion criteria were randomized to either group.