Serum bupivacaine concentrations following wound infiltration in children undergoing inguinal herniotomy

Serum bupivacaine concentrations were measured in 12 children who underwent elective herniotomy and who received analgesia in the form of wound infiltration. Mean (SD) peak concentration was 0.36 (0.14) micrograms/ml and time to peak concentration was 14.6 (7.2) minutes after infiltration of 1.25 mg/kg of bupivacaine. These concentrations are lower than those associated with other local anaesthetic blocks and well below potentially toxic levels. Wound infiltration provides a simple, effective and safe method of providing postoperative analgesia for hernia repair in children.     

Percutaneous cholecystography in children

Percutaneous cholecystography was performed on 13 children who had biliary system abnormalities: two had biliary hypoplasia, five had sclerosing cholangitis, three had cirrhosis, two had distal choledochal obstruction, and one had an obstructed portoenterostomy. In 12 patients transcholecystic cholangiography showed, without significant complications, the intra-and extrahepatic bile ducts. In one patient with primary sclerosing cholangitis, the intrahepatic bile ducts were not opacified satisfactorily; dilatation of the gallbladder required surgical drainage. The transcholecystic technique is indicated when the intrahepatic bile ducts are either mildly dilated or not dilated.     

Bilateral peritonsillar abscess: case report and presentation of its clinical appearance.

Although there is no consensus on its incidence, bilateral peritonsillar abscess is an unusual variant of an otherwise relatively common otolaryngologic disease. A bilateral peritonsillar abscess can be differentiated from other oropharyngeal pathology with a detailed physical examination and complementary imaging. Its diagnosis should always be considered in patients who have signs and symptoms that are suggestive of peritonsillar abscess but whose intraoral examination yields atypical findings, as well as in patients with marked distress or trismus. This article describes the case of a young man who came to the emergency room with bilateral peritonsillar abscess. The author believes that this report contains the only published photograph of the intraoral appearance of this condition.     

Neurological dysfunction after intrathecal injection of dynorphin A (1-13) in the rat. I. Injection procedures modify pharmacological responses

In rats, the spinal subarachnoid injection of the kappa opioid agonist Dynorphin A (Dyn A)(1-13) and the delta opioid receptor antagonist ICI 174864 produced dose-related flaccid paralysis of hindlimbs and tail that were influenced appreciably by injection procedures. When injected through indwelling intrathecal (i.t.) catheters terminating at L1 to L2, both peptides were significantly more potent producing paralysis 1 day, rather than 10 to 14 days, after i.t. catheterization. Other rats received direct subarachnoid injections of these peptides through 30-gauge needles placed in the L4 to L5 intervertebral space. In naive, uncatheterized and acutely catheterized rats, direct intervertebral injection of these peptides, as well as D-Ala2-Dyn A (1-13) amide (a metabolically stable analog of Dyn A (1-13), produced hindlimb paralysis with potencies comparable to those recorded after injections through acutely implanted catheters. In contrast, chronically catheterized rats showed significantly reduced responsivity to direct intervertebral injections of all three of these peptides. Loss of hindlimb motor function was associated with loss of nociceptive responsiveness. Elevations in tail-flick latencies were only seen with doses of Dyn A (1-13) which produced motor dysfunction, and were not blocked or reversed by high doses of the opioid antagonist naloxone. These results indicate that: 1) indwelling i.t. catheters induce spinal cord alterations which complicate their experimental usefulness, 2) Dyn A (1-13) does not alter responsiveness to thermal nociceptive stimuli through opioid mechanism and 3) Dyn A (1-13) causes parallel disruptions of spinal cord motor and nociceptive function.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

What is a safe waiting time for coronary artery bypass surgery?

To determine the factors that influenced doctors' prioritization and decisions on safe waiting time for coronary artery bypass surgery, 50 'paper patients', based on a random sample of cases who actually had surgery, were assessed by 33 clinicians. We used linear regression models to reflect the impact of clinical and non-clinical 'cues' on safe waiting time and priority decisions. The benefits of surgery tended to be over-estimated. For example, the average perceived gain in life expectancy for patients with left main-stem disease was 6.74 years. However, models incorporating only the perceptions of benefit as independent variables (i.e. the anticipated symptom reduction, MI risk reduction and life expectancy extension), had only modest explanatory power (mean R2 was 0.55 for safe waiting time, and 0.56 for priority decisions). Models which incorporated perceptions of benefit and the cases' clinical and non-clinical characteristics had generally much higher explanatory power (mean R2, 0.83 and 0.86, respectively). Lifestyle and demographic variables had much less impact on the doctors' judgements than the major clinical cues of angina severity and left main-stem stenosis. Demographic and lifestyle cues had different impacts on safe waiting time and priority for about 25% of doctors.      

Thrombosis in inflammatory bowel disease: clinical setting, procoagulant profile and factor V Leiden

Patients with inflammatory bowel disease have an increased frequency of thromboembolism, and microvascular thrombosis has been proposed as a contributory pathogenic factor. The mechanism of enhanced procoagulant activity is not understood. We examined the clinical setting of thromboembolic events in 52 patients with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis, and assessed the procoagulant laboratory profile, including Factor V Leiden, in a subset of 20 patients to identify procoagulant risk factors. Patients who developed thrombosis tended to be young; 60% of thrombotic events occurred in patients under 50 years. Multiple thromboembolic episodes occurred in 13% and unusual sites of thrombosis (e.g. intracardiac, cerebral, inominate veins) in 11%. No risk factor was identifiable in 52% of cases and two-thirds of thromboses occurred in an out-patient setting. The mortality rate was 8%. Evidence for inflammatory disease activity was found in only 45% of patients with ulcerative colitis at the time of the thromboembolic event, in contrast to 89% of those with Crohn's disease. Assays for specific coagulation defects were negative in all cases tested (protein S, C were normal in 17/17; anti-thrombin III, anti-phospholipid antibodies and activated protein C resistance were negative in 20/20, and only 1/20 patients was found to be heterozygous for Factor V leiden. Thrombosis in inflammatory bowel disease is important because it occurs in a young population, often in unusual sites, and has a high mortality. The development of thrombosis is related to active inflammatory disease in most patients with Crohn's disease but apparently not in those with ulcerative colitis. Since approximately half of the patients had no other identifiable risk factor, there remains a substantial group of patients with IBD who develop thrombosis for unknown reasons.      

Effect of freezing on the in vivo recovery of irradiated red cells

BACKGROUND: Transfusion-associated graft-versus-host disease can be prevented by gamma radiation of blood components. The increased use of blood components donated for patients by their family members has resulted in an increased demand for the storage and handling of irradiated units, and the ability to freeze the cells would allow storage beyond their current expiration date. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: To assess the effect of freezing and deglycerolization on irradiated red cells, studies of autologous radiolabeled red cell recovery were performed using normal volunteers. Each unit of CPDA-1 red cells was immediately divided into two equal volumes. Further handling of each half was identical except that one was irradiated (3500 cGy). The units were grouped under three protocols: I, irradiated on Day 0 and frozen on Day 5 (n = 4); II, irradiated on Day 7, rejuvenated, and frozen on Day 14 (n = 5); and III, irradiated on Day 14, rejuvenated, and frozen on Day 18 (n = 3). All cells were frozen for 3 to 10 months at -80 degrees C. RESULTS: Irradiated and control units showed no significant differences in supernatant potassium or hemoglobin. Autologous 24-hour posttransfusion recoveries (mean +/− SD) for the three groups were: I, 89.7 +/− 5.6 percent (control, 90.6 +/− 3.2%); II, 85.3 +/− 5.7 percent (control, 83.7 +/− 3.0%); and III, 79.5 +/− 1.4 percent (control, 82.6 +/− 5.2%). CONCLUSION: Irradiated red cells can be frozen after being stored under various conditions and can still meet established guidelines requiring 75-percent recovery 24 hours after transfusion.     

The stated and tacit impact of demographic and lifestyle factors on prioritization decisions for cardiac surgery

In a clinical judgement analysis, we used linear regression models to reflect the impact of clinical and non-clinical cues on priority decisions, by comparing the stated prioritization policies of 30 clinicians with their actual policies as revealed by an appraisal of 50 'paper patients'. Correspondence was modest for some cues, e.g. 25 doctors said they accounted for age, but age only had a significant bearing in the derived decision models of two doctors. Correspondence between the derived and expressed weights was greatest for clinical angina grade and the presence of left main stem stenosis. Correlation between the rank order of importance between the two models was poor for most of the cues, and statistically significant only for smoking. However, stated policies made it appear that lifestyle factors such as smoking habit would influence prioritization decisions for most clinicians but policies derived from actual prioritization decisions seldom related to lifestyle or demographic variables. There were significant differences in the degree of correlation between the two models according to the experience of the clinician. However, correspondence was not significantly better for doctors with cardiological training than those without. The overall contribution of demographic and lifestyle factors to decision making appears to be small, suggesting that they should be omitted from prioritization guidelines.