Balanced Opioid-free Anesthesia with Dexmedetomidine versus Balanced Anesthesia with Remifentanil for Major or Intermediate Noncardiac Surgery.

Background: It is speculated that opioid-free anesthesia may provide adequate pain control while reducing postoperative opioid consumption. However, there is currently no evidence to support the speculation. The authors hypothesized that opioid-free balanced anesthetic with dexmedetomidine reduces postoperative opioid-related adverse events compared with balanced anesthetic with remifentanil.

Retroperitoneoscopic adrenalectomy: comparison of retrograde and antegrade approach among a series of 279 cases.

Objective: To compare the results of retroperitoneal laparoscopic adrenalectomy using the antegrade and retrograde approach.

Materials And Methods: We performed an analysis of a single-center series of 279 retroperitoneal laparoscopic adrenalectomies from 1996 to 2010. We compared 172 cases performed with an antegrade approach and 107 with a retrograde approach without dissection of the renal hilum and initial control of the adrenal vein in comparable populations.

The importance of increased neck circumference to intubation difficulties in obese patients.

Background: Using the intubation difficulty scale (IDS), we sought to confirm that obese patients are more difficult to intubate than lean patients. We assessed classical bedside tests and included neck circumference.

Methods: We prospectively compared the incidence of difficult tracheal intubation in 70 obese [body mass index (BMI) > or = 30 kg/m(2)] and 61 lean patients (BMI < 30 kg/m(2)).

[Retroperitoneal laparoscopic surgery for phaeochromocytoma: analysis of morbidity and haemodynamic instability].

Objective: To study the morbidity and haemodynamic parameters on a consecutive series of adrenalectomies performed Jbr phaeochromocytoma by retroperitoneal laparoscopy.

Material And Methods: The study population comprised 23 phaeochromocytomas in 20 patients treated by controlled retroperitoneal laparoscopic surgery. The following parameters were studied: intraoperatively: operating time, blood loss, blood pressure, heart rate, and postoperatively: infectious, haemorrhagic and thromboembolic complications.

L-alanyl-L-glutamine dipeptide-supplemented total parenteral nutrition reduces infectious complications and glucose intolerance in critically ill patients: the French controlled, randomized, double-blind, multicenter study.

Objective: Glutamine (Gln)-supplemented total parenteral nutrition (TPN) improves clinical outcome after planned surgery, but the benefits of Gln-TPN for critically ill (intensive care unit; ICU) patients are still debated.

Design: Prospective, double-blind, controlled, randomized trial.

Setting: ICUs in 16 hospitals in France.