Topical pharyngeal anesthesia with articaine for gastroscopy: a double-blinded, randomized cross-over study in healthy volunteers.

Objectives: The benefits of topical pharyngeal anesthesia for gastroscopy remain under debate. Articaine, a local anesthetic with fast onset and offset of action as well as low systemic toxicity, could be a promising choice for topical anesthesia. The objective of this study was to assess whether topical pharyngeal anesthesia with articaine is beneficial in sedated gastroscopy.

The Hemodynamic Effects and Safety of Repetitive Levosimendan Infusions on Children With Dilated Cardiomyopathy.

Background: Limited treatment options are available for children with decompensated dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), while they wait for either functional recovery or heart transplantation. We evaluated the safety of repetitive levosimendan infusions and short-term and long-term impacts of the therapy in this patient population.

Methods: Eighty-one repetitive levosimendan infusions administered to 20 patients with DCM at severe or end stage of the disease in the pediatric intensive care unit were analyzed retrospectively.