Validation of a visual analogue scale for the evaluation of the postoperative anxiety: A prospective observational study.

Aim: Anxiety affects the perception of pain during the postoperative period. A simple evaluation scale could improve the management of this component. The objective of this study was to evaluate the reproducibility and the consistency of a visual analogue scale for anxiety compared with the reference method, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI).

[Isoflurane in spontaneous ventilation (in orthopedic surgery: comparison with halothane)].

Isoflurane and halothane, two anaesthetics agents have been compared. Forty young and healthy patients were divided into two randomly selected group. Each of them was anaesthetized either with isoflurane or with halothane.

[Biological changes induced by the removal of the tourniquet in orthopedic surgery].

In 49 patients undergoing surgery on the lower limb with the use of a tourniquet, arterial PO2 and PCO2 were determined. In 16 cases they were also determined in the ischemic limb. In 40 of these patients coagulation studies were done and in 8 cases on blood from both the general circulation and from the ischemic limb.

[Anaesthesia for computerised axial tomography in children (author's transl)].

Computerised axial tomography requires total immobility, which must be obtained by a simple and safe technique of anaesthesia. Three anaesthesia techniques were used and analysed in 54 children aged less than 5 years: the technique of the feeding bottle, sedation with pentobarbital or diazepam and general anaesthesia with ketamine hydrochloride. The technique of the feeding bottle can be proposed in selected patients.