Ketamine for prehospital trauma analgesia in a low-resource rural trauma system: a retrospective comparative study of ketamine and opioid analgesia in a ten-year cohort in Iraq.

Background: Opioid analgesics are used in most trauma systems, and only a few studies report on the use of ketamine for prehospital analgesia. In a low-cost rural trauma system in Iraq paramedics have been using prehospital ketamine analgesia for ten years. This study aims to evaluate the effects of prehospital analgesia on physiologic trauma severity indicators and compare the effect of ketamine and pentazocine on those indicators.

A comparison of ketamine and morphine analgesia in prehospital trauma care: a cluster randomized clinical trial in rural Quang Tri province, Vietnam.

Background: The use of opioid analgesics in prehospital trauma care has been reported to have negative side effects on the airway and circulation. Several studies of urban trauma management have recommend ketamine as a safe and efficient analgesic. To date, however, no controlled trials of prehospital opioid analgesics versus ketamine in rural trauma management have been published.

Confusion with cerebral perfusion pressure in a literature review of current guidelines and survey of clinical practice.

Background: Cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) is defined as the difference between the mean arterial pressure (MAP) and the intracranial pressure (ICP). However, since patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) are usually treated with head elevation, the recorded CPP values depends on the zero level used for calibration of the arterial blood pressure. Although international guidelines suggest that target values of optimal CPP are within the range of 50 - 70 mmHg in patients with TBI, the calibration of blood pressure, which directly influences CPP, is not described in the guidelines.

Surgical strategy in grade II astrocytoma: a population-based analysis of survival and morbidity with a strategy of early resection as compared to watchful waiting.

Background: We recently demonstrated a survival benefit of early resection in unselected diffuse low-grade gliomas (LGG). However, heterogeneity within the LGG entity warrants investigation in a homogenous subgroup. Astrocytoma represents the largest subgroup of LGG, and is characterized by diffuse growth and inferior prognosis.

Adenosine instead of supranormal potassium in cardioplegic solution preserves endothelium-derived hyperpolarization factor-dependent vasodilation.

Objective: We have recently shown that adenosine instead of supranormal potassium in cold crystalloid cardioplegia improves cardioprotection. Studies indicate that hyperkalemia has unfavorable effects on vascular endothelial function. Three pathways have been identified as major vasodilatory pathways: the nitric oxide (NO) pathway, the cyclooxygenase (COX) pathway, and the endothelium-derived hyperpolarization (EDHF) pathway, where the EDHF pathway, in particular, seems susceptible to hyperkalemia.