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As pain in the intensive care unit (ICU) is still common despite important progress in pain management, we studied the efficacy of an intravenous bolus of morphine 2.5 vs 7.5 mg for procedural pain relief in patients after cardiothoracic surgery in the ICU. In a prospective double-blind randomised study, 117 ICU patients after cardiothoracic surgery were included. All patients were treated according a pain titration protocol for pain at rest, consisting of continuous morphine infusions and paracetamol, applied during the entire ICU stay. On the first postoperative day, patients were randomised to intravenous morphine 2.5 (n=59) or 7.5 mg (n=58) 30 minutes before a painful intervention (turning of patient and/or chest drain removal). Pain scores using the numeric rating scale (Numeric Rating Scale, range 0 to 10) were rated at rest (baseline) and around the painful procedure. At rest (baseline), overall incidence of unacceptable pain (Numeric Rating Scale ≥4) was low (Numeric Rating Scale >4; 14 vs 17%, P=0.81) for patients allocated to morphine 2.5 and 7.5 mg respectively. For procedure-related pain, there was no difference in incidence of unacceptable pain (28 vs 22%, P=0.53) mean pain scores (2.6 [95% confidence interval 2.0 to 3.2] vs 2.7 [95% confidence interval 2.0 to 3.4]) between patients receiving morphine 2.5 and 7.5 mg respectively. In intensive care patients after cardiothoracic surgery with low pain levels for pain at rest, there was no difference in efficacy between intravenous morphine 2.5 mg or morphine 7.5 mg for pain relief during a painful intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A volunteer study suggested that taking paracetamol 4 g daily could result in elevated alanine aminotransferase plasma levels in a substantial proportion of healthy volunteers. The safety of this dose of paracetamol for acute postoperative pain remains controversial. This study aimed to examine the incidence of alanine aminotransferase elevations after short-term use of paracetamol 4 g daily, as part of the standard pain management protocol, for 93 consecutive patients after cardiothoracic surgery. Alanine aminotransferase levels and other liver function tests were measured preoperatively as baseline and once daily after surgery during the intensive care unit stay. Preoperative alanine aminotransferase levels of more than one time the upper limit of normal (ULN >40 U/l) was observed in 11% (n=10) of the patients but none of these baseline alanine aminotransferase levels exceeded three times the ULN (>3 x ULN). The average daily dose of paracetamol administered was 50 mg/kg (SD=16) after surgery. Postoperative alanine aminotransferase levels of >1 x ULN was observed in 17% (n=16), and 4% (n=4) exceeded >3 x ULN The other liver function tests of the latter four patients, including aspartate aminotransferase (range 173 to 5590 U/l), gamma-glutamyltransferase (range 56 to 103 U/l), lactate dehydrogenase (range 376 to 3518 U/l) and the International Normalised Ratio (range 2.0 to 6.6), were all abnormal. These four patients all had right ventricular failure or cardiogenic shock during the postoperative period which could explain the significant rises in alanine aminotransferase after surgery. In conclusion, the incidence of significant alanine aminotransferase elevations after using daily paracetamol as an analgesic agent for cardiac surgery, at a dose of 4 g per day, was low and mostly due to complications after surgery. Our results, albeit still very limited, provided some reassurance about the safety of paracetamol 4 g daily, as a supplementary analgesic agent for adult patients undergoing cardiac surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Frailty is considered to be an important risk factor for mortality in hospitalized patients. This study evaluates a preoperative frailty-screening tool called Anesthesia Geriatric Evaluation (AGE). Research into the concept of frailty, with a focus on multidisciplinary team meetings, may provide further insight for health care professionals in the understanding of frailty in everyday care situations. Methods: The research method chosen for this research is QUAGOL: Qualitative Analysis Guide of Leuven, which aims to reconstruct the story of the participants on a theoretical level and analyze the concepts found. Results: The following themes illustrate the analyzed concepts found: competence, resilience, sharing responsibility, broad frame of reference, obligation, and significance. Conclusion: AGE seems to create more awareness among health care professionals about frailty and tries to involve patients in their care process by making them aware of their abilities, motivation, and involving them in decisions to be made. This study shows that a shared decision-making process for surgical patients is often difficult to accomplish since AGE is still a paternalistic process of a multidisciplinary team with a medical perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Postoperative non-cardiac complication rates are as high as 11-28% after high-risk abdominal procedures. Emerging evidence indicates that postoperative cardiac troponin T elevations are associated with adverse outcome in non-cardiac surgery. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between postoperative high-sensitive cardiac troponin T elevations and non-cardiac complications in patients after major abdominal surgery., Methods: This prospective observational single-centre cohort study included patients at risk for coronary artery disease undergoing elective major abdominal surgery. Cardiac troponin was measured before surgery and at day 1, 3, and 7. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the adjusted association for different cut-off concentrations of postoperative myocardial injury and non-cardiac outcome., Results: In 203 patients, 690 high-sensitive cardiac troponin T measurements were performed. Fifty-three patients (26%) had a non-cardiac complication within 30 days after surgery. Hospital mortality was 4% (8/203). An increase in cardiac troponin T concentration ≥100% compared with baseline was a superior independent predictor of non-cardiac postoperative clinical complications (adjusted odds ratio 4.3, 95% confidence interval 1.8-10.1, P<0.001) and was associated with increased length of stay (9 days, 95% confidence interval 7-11 vs 7 days, 95% confidence interval 6-8, P=0.004) and increased hospital mortality (12 vs 2%, P=0.028)., Conclusions: A postoperative high-sensitive cardiac troponin T increase ≥100% is a strong predictor of non-cardiac 30 day complications, increased hospital stay and hospital mortality in patients undergoing major abdominal surgery., Clinicaltrialsgov Identifier: NCT02150486., (© The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Journal of Anaesthesia. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

This study describes a population pharmacokinetic meta-analysis of propofol to characterize the influence of body size measures and age in morbidly obese and nonobese adults, adolescents, and children. Sixty morbidly obese and nonobese adult patients (55-167 kg; 21-79 years) and 34 morbidly obese and nonobese adolescents and children (37-184 kg; 9-20 years) were included. The results show that clearance increased with total body weight in an allometric function while age was found to influence clearance in a bilinear fashion with two distinct slopes, reflecting an initial increase and subsequent decrease as a result of aging. Using these two functions, the influence of both (over)weight and age on propofol clearance was well characterized, which may provide a basis for dosing across this diverse group of patients.CPT: Pharmacometrics & Systems Pharmacology (2013) 2, e73; doi:10.1038/psp.2013.47; advance online publication 11 September 2013.