A high risk of sleep apnea is associated with less postoperative cognitive dysfunction after intravenous anesthesia: results of an observational pilot study.

Background: The obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is characterized by temporary cerebral hypoxia which can cause cognitive dysfunction. On the other hand, hypoxia induced neurocognitive deficits are detectable after general anesthesia. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of a high risk of OSAS on the postoperative cognitive dysfunction after intravenous anesthesia.

Algorithmic Summaries of Perioperative Blood Pressure Fluctuations.

Automated perioperative measurements such as cardiovascular monitoring data are commonly compared to established upper and lower thresholds, but could also allow for more complex interpretations. Analyzing such time series in extensive electronic medical records for research purposes may itself require customized automation, so we developed a set of algorithms for quantifying different aspects of temporal fluctuations. We implemented conventional measures of dispersion, summaries of absolute gradients between successive values, and Poincaré plots.

Competency in managing cardiac arrest: A scenario-based evaluation of dental students.

Objective: Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS) in life-threatening situations is perceived as a basic skill for dental professionals. However, medical emergency training in dental schools is often not standardized. The dental students' knowledge transfer to an ACLS setting thus remains questionable.

Intravenous morphine consumption in outpatients with cancer during their last week of life--an analysis based on patient-controlled analgesia data.

Introduction: Studies on opioid use in terminally ill cancer patients have shown a prefinal dose increase in the majority of patients. Mostly oral opioids were used. Due to the pharmacokinetic properties of opioids, it is rather difficult to get a reliable estimate of the true opioid need from those results.

Milrinone combined with vasopressin improves cardiac index after cardiopulmonary resuscitation in a pig model of myocardial infarction.

Background: Milrinone used for acute cardiac insufficiency could be of interest during cardiopulmonary resuscitation because of its positive inotropic effects. In this study, the combination of milrinone-vasopressin was compared with epinephrine and vasopressin, as well as with the combination of epinephrine-vasopressin, in reference to hemodynamics.

Methods: Thirty-two pigs underwent ligation of the circumflex coronary artery and induction of ventricular fibrillation lasting for 4 min.