Acute renal failure in coronary artery bypass surgery: independent effect of cardiopulmonary bypass.

Background: Acute renal failure after cardiac surgery is associated with a high morbidity and mortality, particularly when associated with hemodialysis. The aim of the study was to investigate whether the use of cardiopulmonary bypass increased the risk of developing acute renal failure.

Methods: The 2199 consecutive patients undergoing isolated coronary artery bypass grafting between January 2000 and March 2002 were retrospectively analyzed.

Choice of opioid supplementation for day-case rigid bronchoscopy:a randomized placebo-controlled comparison of a bolus of remifentanil and alfentanil.

Objective: To compare the efficacy of different bolus doses of remifentanil, alfentanil, and saline at controlling the hemodynamic responses to day-case rigid bronchoscopy under general anesthesia.

Design: Prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

Setting: Tertiary referral cardiothoracic hospital, single center.

Suprascapular nerve block for ipsilateral shoulder pain after thoracotomy with thoracic epidural analgesia: a double-blind comparison of 0.5% bupivacaine and 0.9% saline.

Unlabelled: Despite receiving thoracic epidural analgesia, severe ipsilateral shoulder pain is common in patients after thoracotomy. We recruited 44 patients into a double-blinded randomized placebo-controlled study to investigate whether suprascapular nerve block would treat postthoracotomy shoulder pain effectively. All patients received a standard anesthetic with a midthoracic epidural.