Improving patient safety during position changes under general anaesthesia: "CHOPP check"- a new patient safety and educational tool.

The requirement to change position whilst under general anaesthesia may expose patients to significant risks. We devised and implemented a concise and comprehensive patient positioning safety tool with the aim of reducing risks and improving patient safety during position changes under anaesthesia.

Intravascular thrombosis after hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension: regulation by cyclooxygenase-2.

Background: Pulmonary hypertension induced by chronic hypoxia is characterized by thickening of pulmonary artery walls, elevated pulmonary vascular resistance, and right-heart failure. Prostacyclin analogues reduce pulmonary pressures in this condition; raising the possibility that cycloxygenase-2 (COX-2) modulates the response of the pulmonary vasculature to hypoxia.

Methods And Results: Sprague-Dawley rats in which pulmonary hypertension was induced by hypobaric hypoxia for 14 days were treated concurrently with the selective COX-2 inhibitor SC236 or vehicle.

Prolonged neuromuscular blockade as a result of malnutrition-induced pseudocholinesterase deficiency.

Mivacurium is a short-acting neuromuscular blocking drug, ideal for short surgical procedures. The brief duration of action depends on rapid hydrolysis by plasma cholinesterase. An inherited or acquired deficiency of plasma cholinesterase can prolong the effect of mivacurium.

Anaesthetic considerations for laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

Minimally invasive surgical procedures aim to minimize the trauma of the interventional process but still achieve a satisfactory therapeutic result. Tissue trauma is significantly less than that with conventional open procedures, offering the advantages of reduced post-operative pain, shorter hospital stay, more rapid return to normal activities and significant cost savings. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is now a routinely performed procedure and has replaced conventional open cholecystectomy as the procedure of choice for symptomatic cholelithiasis.