Continuous infusion of drugs: a simple and rational system.

Continuous infusion of potent, often short-acting drugs particularly affecting the cardiovascular system is becoming more common in the operating room and intensive care unit. Accuracy and, hence, safety are always important in drug therapy, and never more so than when using the potent vasoactive and cardioactive drugs, yet the multiplicity of methods for preparing these drugs for infusion creates a situation in which mistakes may easily occur. A series of decimally related dilutions for drug preparation is presented, which has been in use for the past 5 years in the cardiac intensive care units at this hospital.

Alfentanil with methohexitone in paediatric dental anaesthesia.

Children recovering from intravenous methohexitone anaesthesia given for simple dental extractions frequently cry, or are restless and confused, during emergence from anaesthesia. This is disturbing for parents and other children. In an attempt to resolve this problem various doses of alfentanil (2.

Evaluation of a pulse oximeter during profound hypothermia. An assessment of the Biox 3700 during induction of hypothermia before cardiac surgery in paediatric patients.

The accuracy of the Ohmeda Biox 3700 pulse oximeter was evaluated in 10 paediatric patients, deliberately surface cooled to 25 degrees C in preparation for cardiac surgery, by comparing the arterial oxygen saturation results obtained from an Ohmeda Biox 3700 and a Radiometer OSM-2 Hemoximeter. Though there was a good correlation between the two series of results, the arterial oxygen saturation was over-estimated by the pulse oximeter compared to the OSM-2 Hemoximeter in the temperature range 36 degrees to 30 degrees C and under-estimated below 30 degrees C. These differences were greatest when the initial saturations were low.