Video-assisted versus conventional tracheal intubation in morbidly obese patients.

Background: We compared tracheal intubation characteristics and arterial oxygenation quality during airway management of morbidly obese patients whose trachea was intubated under video assistance with the LMA CTrach (SEBAC, Pantin, France) or the Airtraq laryngoscope (VYGON, Ecouen, France) with that of the conventional Macintosh laryngoscope.

Methods: After standardized induction of anesthesia, 318 morbidly obese patients scheduled for elective morbid obesity surgery received tracheal intubation with the LMA CTrach, the Airtraq laryngoscope, or the conventional Macintosh laryngoscope. Duration of apnea, time to tracheal intubation, and oxygenation quality during airway management were compared between the LMA CTrach and the laryngoscope groups.

Isoflurane, 0.5 minimum alveolar concentration administered through the precardiopulmonary bypass period, reduces postoperative dobutamine requirements of cardiac surgery patients: a randomized study.

Objective: Cardioprotective properties have been shown with halogenated volatile agents. It was hypothesized that low-dose isoflurane administered before aortic cross-clamping may reduce the amount of dobutamine required to improve impaired postoperative cardiac function after various types of cardiac surgery.

Design: A prospective, randomized trial.

Demonstration of the spread of injectate with deep cervical plexus block: a case series.

Background And Objectives: The authors conducted a scanographic study in order to characterize the local anesthetic spread of injectate resulting from a single-injection technique of deep cervical plexus block.

Methods: Six consecutive American Society of Anesthesiologists II and III patients scheduled for elective carotid endarterectomy under regional anesthesia were enrolled. Deep cervical plexus block was placed via an anterolateral approach using a nerve stimulator to guide the injection on contact with the levator scapulae nerve.

Paradoxical platelet activation was not observed on dissociation of abciximab from GpIIb-IIIa complexes.

The ability of abciximab to bind and dissociate from platelets raises the question of the conformational state of GPIIb-IIIa complexes losing abciximab and the risk of paradoxical drug-induced platelet activation. Platelets incubated with abciximab and mixed in vitro with c7E3 Fab-free platelets lost the drug to the new platelets giving a single platelet population with a unimodal abciximab distribution within 17 h. Prelabeling the receiving platelets with phycoerythrin-labeled anti-GPIb monoclonal antibody (MoAb), permitted their identification by flow cytometry.