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Aim: This study was carried out to evaluate the outcome of patients in different hospitals with the aim to plan future structural and management changes., Methods: All the anaesthesiological and surgical procedures were observed for a 2 weeks period in a major teaching hospital (A), in a major nonteaching hospital (B) and in a minor nonteaching hospital (C) in all the patients requiring anaesthesia. The main and the co-existing diseases and the surgical and anaesthesiological treatments they received were evaluated to determine the outcome. The ASA class, the duration of the procedure, the length of staying in hospital, the transfusions of blood or derivatives, the adverse events for each patient were also observed., Results: The results showed that the patients admitted to the teaching hospital were classified in higher ASA risk classes and had surgery of longer duration, with a higher ratio of major surgery. The outcome was satisfactory in all the 3 hospitals, with a 2 days length of stay respectively in 30% (A and B) and 50% (C) of the patients. The rate of mortality was low: only 3 patients in hospital A and no patient in B and C died in a period of 2 days following surgery. Hospitals B and C showed a large use of modern techniques such as autologous blood transfusion and central and peripheral anaesthetic blocks, with a better cost-benefit ratio than the major teaching hospital., Conclusions: This study showed good results, but it should be repeated in a few years in order to evaluate any change and possible improvement in the management and outcome of the patients.

Methods: 50 ASA I-IV patients (62-90 aged, mean 78.54 +/- 6.48) were submitted to subarachnoidal selective anaesthesia with hyperbaric 1% bupivacaine and morphine for hip surgery. The aim of the study was to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of this anaesthetic technique. Ketamine 0.25 mg/kg and propofol 0.5 mg/kg were administered intravenously before positioning the patients homolaterally to the sick hip. The subarachnoidal puncture was effected at L2-L3 or L3-L4 level with a 22 gauge Quinke or Whitacre needle. The mean dose of bupivacaine was 7.72 +/- 0.81 mg and the mean dose of morphine was 0.23 +/- 0.03 mg. No patient needed general anaesthesia; 3 patients needed small boluses of ketamine and propofol or fentanyl (50 gamma) before the end of surgery. Ephedrine (5 mg) was administered to 5 patients to counteract hypotension by sympathetic block. Only one patient needed extra analgesia up to 8 hours after surgery (Ketorolac 60 mg)., Results: The morphine side effects were 3 cases of itch (6%), 4 cases of drowsiness (8%), 5 cases of nausea and vomiting (10%), 1 case of herpes labialis (2%); the subarachnoidal puncture caused one case of headache., Conclusions: The authors believe that such an easily executable anaesthetic technique is safe enough even in elderly patients.

For monitoring of vecuronium profound neuromuscular blockade post-tetanic count (PTC) following tetanic stimulation at frequency of 50 and 100 Hz was employed in 25 ASA I-II patients submitted to elective surgery, to evaluate the differences between the two patterns of stimulation and the possible clinical utility of the latter pattern of stimulation. The drugs employed for anaesthesia were: diazepam 0.15 mg kg-1 in premedication, thiopental 4-5 mg kg-1 for induction, suxamethonium 1.5 mg kg-1 for tracheal intubation. Anaesthesia was maintained with N2 + O2 (2:1). Analgesia was obtained with fentanyl at usual doses, and muscular relaxation with vecuronium. The ulnar nerve was stimulated at the wrist with Digistim III Plus and the responses evaluated by tactile method. The pattern of stimulation used was a cyclic one, as described by Howardy Hansen et al. The first dose of vecuronium (0.06 mg kg-1) was administered at recovery from suxamethonium (clinically evaluated) and the other doses (0.06 mg kg-1) when the third response to a train of four appeared. The results show that the PTC following 100 Hz tetanus was greater than the PTC following 50 Hz tetanic stimulation (P < 0.01). The results also show that PTC following 100 Hz tetanus leads to underestimate neuromuscular blockade; yet maybe it has any clinical employment in selected surgical situations such as middle ear and eye surgery, microvascular surgery, neurosurgery.

The authors critically examine the preoperative management, the various anaesthetic techniques, the perioperative undesired effects in eighty six ASA I-II paediatric patients (age 6 months-11 years) submitted to ambulatorial anaesthesia for minor surgery or endoscopy. The importance of the psychological approach to patients and parents is enhanced. The preoperative screening included physical examination, ECG and simple laboratory tests. Various anaesthetic techniques (tracheal intubation and muscle relaxation with mechanical ventilation or spontaneous breathing) and many variously combined anaesthetic drugs (propofol 2 mg/kg, ketamine 1.5 mg/kg, diazepam 0.15 mg/kg, thiopental 3-4 mg/kg, halothane 1-2 MAC, fentanyl 1 microgram/kg) were employed depending on the quality of the surgical procedure and the conditions and the age of the patient. The results show that arousal was always rapid and smooth. The residual analgesia was sufficient in 74 cases; the other patients received rectal paracetamol 250 mg. No major complication was observed and only 6 patients were discharged 1 day later on account of vomiting or low Steward score. In conclusion outpatient paediatric anaesthesia has no contraindication for ASA I-II patients, shows no major complication and is well accepted by the patients and their patients.

The authors report their own experience in three cases of paediatric phaeochromocytoma. Before surgery the patients received alpha-adrenergic blocking drugs; two of them also received calcium channels blocking drugs and in one of them was employed a beta-adrenergic blocking drug too. Before surgery the patients received blood and plasma expandera infusions for two weeks. Hypertension during surgery was treated with phentolamine infusion. The employment of an invasive haemodynamic monitoring was very important. The authors believe that such management, already employed in adult patients, is the best choice in paediatric patients too.

The Authors report their own experience in three patients that showed reduced sensitivity to atracurium or vecuronium. Two patients were affected by neoplastic diseases and one by hand trauma. Doses of 0.5 mg/kg of atracurium and 0.08 mg/kg of vecuronium were unable to establish a complete neuromuscular blockade. The Authors review the main clinical situations in which resistance to non-depolarizing muscle relaxants is known: burns, hepatic diseases, chronic therapy with anticonvulsant drugs. Possibly, such events are due to fast elimination of the drug, or to an increased number of acetylcholine nicotinic receptors, or to an unknown acutely acting circulating factor, or to increased binding of the drug to plasma proteins. Up to date, no well-established explanation is available.

Vecuronium bromide was employed in 26 pediatric patients; 18 received vecuronium infusion and 11 intermittent bolus administration. The aim of the study was to evaluate the pharmacodynamics of the drug, the lack of cumulative properties, the best infusion rate, the possible advantage of the infusion technique. Neuromuscular blockade monitoring was performed in all patients. In the results, vecuronium shows lack of cumulative properties. The best infusion rate was 0.13 +/- 0.02 mg/kg/h. The continuous infusion allows the employment of lesser doses of the drug than the intermittent administration.

The authors report personal experience in two patients undergoing thoracotomy after previous pneumonectomy. They examine the risks and the complications of such surgical procedure (right ventricular failure, respiratory failure). Management consists of restriction of liquid infusions, digitalis administration, use of drugs that have little effect on haemodynamics, epidural analgesia by morphine.

Onset time and duration of action were monitored in three groups of 13 patients each, using different patterns of neuromuscular stimulation (single twitch stimulation, STS at 10 sec intervals and train of four, TOF, at 10, and 20 sec intervals) to assess: 1) the correspondence between the single twitch and the first TOF twitch; 2) the importance of the stimulation interval. The results show that onset time is longer and the duration of action is shorter when STS or TOF is used at 20 sec intervals in comparison to TOF at 10 sec intervals.