ESAIC focused guidelines for the management of the failing epidural during labour epidural analgesia.

Background: Labour epidural analgesia reportedly fails in up to 10 to 25% of cases. A joint taskforce of European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care (ESAIC) experts was created to develop this focused guideline on the management of failing epidural analgesia in a previously well functioning epidural catheter.

Design: Six clinical questions were defined using a PICO (Population/Intervention/Comparison/Outcome) strategy to conduct a systematic literature search.

Optimal Maternal Ventilation During Laparotomy with General Anesthesia in Pregnancy in the Ovine Model.

Background: General anesthesia during pregnancy is not uncommon, for example, for trauma surgery, cerclage, or cesarean delivery. Current recommendations are to maintain maternal partial pressure of carbon dioxide in arterial blood (paCO2) at 30 mm Hg, which is based solely on the average maternal paCO2 in awake pregnant women. However, there is no evidence that this target, compared to other targets, would enable optimal conditions for the fetus during general anesthesia.

A critical approach to research on perioperative pain management.

Optimal postoperative pain management is a prerequisite for enhancing functional recovery after surgery. However, many studies assessing analgesic interventions have limitations. Consequently, further improvements in study design are urgently needed.

End-tidal concentration of sevoflurane for optimal surgical conditions in pregnant sheep: a pragmatic approach to a retrospective observational study.

The aim of this pragmatic approach to retrospective observational study was to identify the end-tidal concentration of sevoflurane which was associated with optimal surgical conditions (i.e., absence of any movement, coughing and straining) in 127 pregnant sheep.