Cognitive function mediates the relationship between age and anaesthesia-induced oscillatory-specific alpha power.

Cognitive decline is common among older individuals, and although the underlying brain mechanisms are not entirely understood, researchers have suggested using EEG frontal alpha activity during general anaesthesia as a potential biomarker for cognitive decline. This is because frontal alpha activity associated with GABAergic general anaesthetics has been linked to cognitive function. However, oscillatory-specific alpha power has also been linked with chronological age.

Validation of the CALL score as a mortality prediction tool in a cohort of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Chile.

Introduction: The CALL score is a predictive tool for respiratory failure progression in COVID-19. Whether the CALL score is useful to predict short- and medium-term mortality in an unvaccinated population is unknown.

Materials And Methods: This is a prospective cohort study in unvaccinated inpatients with a COVID-19 pneumonia diagnosis upon hospital admission.

Compound climate-pollution extremes in Santiago de Chile.

Cities in the global south face dire climate impacts. It is in socioeconomically marginalized urban communities of the global south that the effects of climate change are felt most deeply. Santiago de Chile, a major mid-latitude Andean city of 7.

The effect of age on electroencephalogram measures of anesthesia hypnosis: A comparison of BIS, Alpha Power, Lempel-Ziv complexity and permutation entropy during propofol induction.

Background: Improving anesthesia administration for elderly population is of particular importance because they undergo considerably more surgical procedures and are at the most risk of suffering from anesthesia-related complications. Intraoperative brain monitors electroencephalogram (EEG) have proved useful in the general population, however, in elderly subjects this is contentious. Probably because these monitors do not account for the natural differences in EEG signals between young and older patients.

Dissociative and analgesic properties of ketamine are independent and unaltered by sevoflurane general anesthesia.

Introduction: Ketamine, an anesthetic adjunct, is routinely administered as part of a balanced general anesthetic technique. We recently showed that the acute analgesic and dissociation properties of ketamine are separable to suggest that distinct neural circuits underlie these states.

Objective: We aimed to study whether this finding is robust to the substantial neural circuit alterations associated with general anesthesia.

Postoperative delirium mediates 180-day mortality in orthopaedic trauma patients.

Background: Frailty has been associated with increased incidence of postoperative delirium and mortality. We hypothesised that postoperative delirium mediates a clinically significant (≥1%) percentage of the effect of frailty on mortality in older orthopaedic trauma patients.

Methods: This was a single-centre, retrospective observational study including 558 adults 65 yr and older, who presented with an extremity fracture requiring hospitalisation without initial ICU admission.

A polysomnography study examining the association between sleep and postoperative delirium in older hospitalized cardiac surgical patients.

Hospitalized older patients who undergo elective cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass are prone to postoperative delirium. Self-reported shorter sleep and longer sleep have been associated with impaired cognition. Few data exist to guide us on whether shorter or longer sleep is associated with postoperative delirium in this hospitalized cohort.

Oral Dexmedetomidine Promotes Non-rapid Eye Movement Stage 2 Sleep in Humans.

Background: The administration of dexmedetomidine is limited to highly monitored care settings because it is only available for use in humans as intravenous medication. An oral formulation of dexmedetomidine may broaden its use to all care settings. The authors investigated the effect of a capsule-based solid oral dosage formulation of dexmedetomidine on sleep polysomnography.

A Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Study of Oral Dexmedetomidine.

Background: Dexmedetomidine is only approved for use in humans as an intravenous medication. An oral formulation may broaden the use and benefits of dexmedetomidine to numerous care settings. The authors hypothesized that oral dexmedetomidine (300 mcg to 700 mcg) would result in plasma concentrations consistent with sedation while maintaining hemodynamic stability.

Dissociative and Analgesic Properties of Ketamine Are Independent.

Background: Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic with analgesic properties. Ketamine's analgesic properties have been suggested to result from its dissociative properties. To the authors' knowledge, this postulate is unsubstantiated.

Improved tracking of sevoflurane anesthetic states with drug-specific machine learning models.

Objective: The ability to monitor anesthetic states using automated approaches is expected to reduce inaccurate drug dosing and side-effects. Commercially available anesthetic state monitors perform poorly when ketamine is administered as an anesthetic-analgesic adjunct. Poor performance is likely because the models underlying these monitors are not optimized for the electroencephalogram (EEG) oscillations that are unique to the co-administration of ketamine.

Electroencephalogram Burst-suppression during Cardiopulmonary Bypass in Elderly Patients Mediates Postoperative Delirium.

Background: Intraoperative burst-suppression is associated with postoperative delirium. Whether this association is causal remains unclear. Therefore, the authors investigated whether burst-suppression during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) mediates the effects of known delirium risk factors on postoperative delirium.

Drug-Specific Models Improve the Performance of an EEG-based Automated Brain-State Prediction System.

Maintaining anesthetic states using automated brain-state prediction systems is expected to reduce drug overdosage and associated side-effects. However, commercially available brain-state monitoring systems perform poorly on drug-class combinations. We assume that current automated brain-state prediction systems perform poorly because they do not account for brain-state dynamics that are unique to drug-class combinations.

Control-flow analysis of procedural skills competencies in medical training through process mining.

Background: Procedural skills are key to good clinical results, and training in them involves a significant amount of resources. Control-flow analysis (ie, the order in which a process is performed) can provide new information for those who train and plan procedural training. This study outlines the steps required for control-flow analysis using process mining techniques in training in an ultrasound-guided internal jugular central venous catheter placement using a simulation.

Effect of nitric oxide on postoperative acute kidney injury in patients who underwent cardiopulmonary bypass: a systematic review and meta-analysis with trial sequential analysis.

Background: The effect of nitric oxide (NO) on renal function is controversial in critical illness. We performed a systematic meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis to determine the effect of NO gas on renal function and other clinical outcomes in patients requiring cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). The primary outcome was the relative risk (RR) of acute kidney injury (AKI), irrespective of the AKI stage.

Delta oscillations phase limit neural activity during sevoflurane anesthesia.

Understanding anesthetic mechanisms with the goal of producing anesthetic states with limited systemic side effects is a major objective of neuroscience research in anesthesiology. Coherent frontal alpha oscillations have been postulated as a mechanism of sevoflurane general anesthesia. This postulate remains unproven.

[Analysis of incident reports in an anesthesiology unit of a university hospital].

Background: Incident reporting is an effective strategy used to enhance patient safety. An incident is an event that could eventually result in harm to a patient.

Aim: To classify and analyze incidents reported by an Anesthesiology division at a University hospital in Chile.

[Long term survival of patients operated for early gastric cancer].

Background: Early gastric cancer involves mucosa and submucosa, independent of lymph node involvement. Radical gastrectomy is the standard treatment.

Aim: To assess long term survival of patients operated for an early gastric cancer.