Propofol anaesthesia reduces early post-operative emesis after paediatric strabismus surgery

Propofol anaesthesia may reduce postoperative emesis. The purpose of this study was to compare the incidence of emesis after propofol anaesthesia with and without nitrous oxide, compared with thiopentone and halothane anaesthesia, in hospital and up to 24 hr postoperatively, in outpatient paediatric patients after strabismus surgery. Seventy-five ASA class I or II, unpremedicated patients, aged 2–12 yr were randomly assigned to one of three groups: Thiopentone, 6.0 mg · kg^{? 1} iv induction followed by halothane and N₂O/O₂ for maintenance (T/H); propofol for induction, followed by propofol and oxygen for maintenance (P/O₂); and propofol for iv induction, followed by propofol infusion and N₂O/O₂ for maintenance (P/N₂O). All received vecuronium, controlled ventilation, and acetaminophen pr. Morphine was given as needed for postoperative analgesia. There were no differences in age, weight, number of eye muscles operated upon, duration of anaesthesia or surgery. The P/N₂O group (255 ± 80 μg· kg^{? 1}· min^{? 1}) received less propofol than the P/O₂ group (344 ± 60 μg · kg^{? 1}· min^{? 1}) (P ≤ 0.0001) and had shorter extubation (P < 0.001) and recovery (P < 0.01) times. Emesis in the hospital, in both the P/N₂O (4.0%) and P/O₂ group (4.0%) was less than in the T/H group (32%) (P < 0.01). Antiemetics were required in four patients in the T/H group (16.0%). Overall emesis after surgery was not different among the groups: T/H (48%), P/O₂ (28%) and P/N₂O (42%). The use of propofol anaesthesia with and without N₂O decreased only early emesis. This supports the concept of a short-acting, specific antiemetic effect of propofol.     

Symptoms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder during Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Psychiatric Quarterly - The main aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to calculate and compare the frequencies of obsessions and compulsions in women with obsessive-compulsive...     

Is Robotic Revisional Bariatric Surgery Justified? An MBSAQIP Analysis

Background

The laparoscopic approach is utilized in greater than 90% of bariatric surgeries. With the growing prevalence of robotic-assisted surgery in bariatrics, there has been limited consensus on the superiority of either laparoscopic or robotic approaches, especially in revisional procedures (conversion from sleeve gastrectomy (SG) to Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB)).

Methods

A retrospective analysis was performed of the MBSAQIP PUF database of patients who underwent conversion from SG to RYGB procedures in either laparoscopic or robotic-assisted approaches. The groups underwent 2:1 propensity matching and primary outcomes included post-conversion days until discharge (POD), conversion operation length, total and major morbidity, 30-day readmission, 30-day reoperation, 30-day reintervention, and 30-day mortality after conversion.

Results

After 2:1 propensity score matching, 3411 patients (2274 laparoscopic vs 1137 robotic) were included in the study. Intraoperatively, no significant difference was found in total morbidity (6.5% lap vs 5.9% robotic) or major morbidity (1.9% lap vs 1.7% robotic); however, the operative times were significantly longer robotically (126 min vs 164 min). Post-operatively, no significant differences were found in discharge day (1.8 lap vs 1.8 robotic), 30-day readmission (7.6% lap vs 8.6% robotic), reoperation rate (2.9% lap vs 3.7% robotic), additional intervention rate (2.5% lap vs 3.3% robotic), or 30-day mortality (0.1% vs 0.1%).

Conclusion

There is no significant difference in perioperative or intraoperative outcomes between laparoscopic and robotic-assisted SG to RYGB conversion procedures other than a longer operative time in the robotic approach, suggesting increased efficiency with the laparoscopic approach.

Graphical abstract

     

Risk-Taking in Disorders of Natural and Drug Rewards: Neural Correlates and Effects of Probability,Valence, and Magnitude

Pathological behaviors toward drugs and food rewards have underlying commonalities. Risk-taking has a fourfold pattern varying as a function of probability and valence leading to the nonlinearity of probability weighting with overweighting of small probabilities and underweighting of large probabilities. Here we assess these influences on risk-taking in patients with pathological behaviors toward drug and food rewards and examine structural neural correlates of nonlinearity of probability weighting in healthy volunteers. In the anticipation of rewards, subjects with binge eating disorder show greater risk-taking, similar to substance-use disorders. Methamphetamine-dependent subjects had greater nonlinearity of probability weighting along with impaired subjective discrimination of probability and reward magnitude. Ex-smokers also had lower risk-taking to rewards compared with non-smokers. In the anticipation of losses, obesity without binge eating had a similar pattern to other substance-use disorders. Obese subjects with binge eating also have impaired discrimination of subjective value similar to that of the methamphetamine-dependent subjects. Nonlinearity of probability weighting was associated with lower gray matter volume in dorsolateral and ventromedial prefrontal cortex and orbitofrontal cortex in healthy volunteers. Our findings support a distinct subtype of binge eating disorder in obesity with similarities in risk-taking in the reward domain to substance use disorders. The results dovetail with the current approach of defining mechanistically based dimensional approaches rather than categorical approaches to psychiatric disorders. The relationship to risk probability and valence may underlie the propensity toward pathological behaviors toward different types of rewards.     

Long-term prognosis of patients with early post-infarction angina.

BACKGROUND: Most studies have shown that early post-infarction angina (EPA) implies an unfavorable long-term prognosis among patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). However, some studies have failed to establish a link between the occurrence of EPA and increased mortality and recurrent infarction rates. METHODS AND RESULTS: In order to evaluate a long-term prognosis in patients with EPA, we assessed the 5-year prognosis of 80 patients with AMI by the presence or absence of EPA. During the 5-year follow up, the occurrence of death, cardiac death, recurrent infarction, unstable angina, heart failure, revascularization and cardiac events were recorded. A cardiac event was defined as an occurrence of any of the following events: cardiac death, recurrent infarction, unstable angina, heart failure and revascularization. Survival analysis showed no differences between patients with and without EPA in the probability of death (p=NS), cardiac death (p=NS), recurrent myocardial infarction (p=NS) and unstable angina (p=NS). Patients with EPA had a higher probability of developing cardiac events (p=0.0285) and undergoing revascularization procedures (p=0.0188). CONCLUSIONS: EPA increases the risk of patients developing cardiac events and undergoing revascularization procedures, and thereby implies a poor long-term prognosis for patients with AMI.     

Interferon‐free antiviral treatment of chronic hepatitis C in the transplant setting

Interferon‐based regimens with first‐generation protease inhibitors have a limited efficacy and an unfavorable safety profile. Combination therapies with two or more second‐generation direct‐acting antivirals plus/minus ribavirin revolutionized treatment strategies in patients chronically infected with hepatitis C virus. In this rapidly evolving era, patients in the transplant setting benefit from interferon‐free treatment regimens. Scientific societies can barely keep up with this development, making it necessary to update the clinical guidelines by the American and European Associations for the Study of Liver Diseases within short periods. This review presents and discusses the currently available data of the use of interferon‐free treatment in the setting of liver transplantation. However, costs, different reimbursement strategies, and health‐care options cannot be answered by guidelines and recommendations from scientific societies. Further investigator‐initiated trials are needed to individualize treatment concepts.     

Analysis of premature centromere division (PCD) of the X chromosome in Alzheimer patients through the cell cycle

Cytogenetic analysis of the X chromosome in phytohaemagglutinin stimulated peripheral blood lymphocytes was evaluated in 12 sporadic Alzheimer disease (AD) patients and in 11 healthy subjects. For chromosome analysis two methods were used: (1) standard analysis of G-banded metaphase chromosomes and; (2) fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) for the detection of the X chromosome centromeric region in interphase nuclei. Cytogenetic analysis revealed that the X chromosome expresses premature centromere division (PCD) in AD females in 10.53% of metaphase cells and in 15.22% of interphase nuclei. In AD men the percentages were 3.98 and 6.06%, respectively. X chromosome PCD in the female control group showed a percentage of 7.46% in metaphase cells and 9.35% in interphase nuclei and in male controls the percentages were 2.84% in metaphases and 5.54% in interphase nuclei. The results of FISH analysis showed that PCD could occur much earlier than metaphase of mitosis, i.e. in interphase of the cell cycle, immediately after replication. The FISH method can be used for PCD verification in all phases of the cell cycle in various disorders including AD.     

Revisiting predictors of virologic response to PEGIFN + RBV therapy in HIV‐/HCV‐coinfected patients: the role of metabolic factors and elevated GGT levels

Evaluation of metabolic factors and elevated γ‐glutamyltransferase (GGT) levels as independent predictors of treatment failure in a thoroughly documented cohort of HIV‐/HCV‐coinfected patients (HIV/HCV). Sixty‐four HIV/HCV patients treated with pegylated interferon‐α‐2a plus ribavirin (PEGIFN + RBV) at the Medical University of Vienna within a prospective trial were included in this study. In addition, 124 patients with HIV/HCV from the AIFA‐HIV and AHIVCOS cohorts were included as a validation cohort. Advanced liver fibrosis, GGT elevation, insulin resistance (IR) and low CD4+ nadir were defined as METAVIR F3/F4, GGT levels >1.5× sex‐specific upper limit of normal, homoeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance >2 and CD4+ nadir <350 cells/μL, respectively. HCV‐genotype 1/4 (OR26.3; P = 0.006), advanced liver fibrosis (OR20.2; P = 0.009), interleukin 28B rs12979860 non‐C/C SNP (OR8.27; P = 0.02) and GGT elevation (OR7.97; P = 0.012) were independent predictors of treatment failure, while both IR (OR3.51; P = 0.106) and low CD4 + nadir (OR2.64; P = 0.263) were not independently associated with treatment failure. A statistically significant correlation between GGT elevation and prior alcohol abuse (r = 0.259; P = 0.039), liver steatosis (r = 0.301; P = 0.034) and low‐density lipoprotein‐cholesterol (r = −0.256; P = 0.041) was observed. The importance of GGT elevation as an independent predictor of treatment failure was confirmed in a validation cohort (OR2.76; P = 0.026). While GGT elevation emerged as an independent predictor of treatment failure in both the derivation and the validation cohort, no independent associations between metabolic factors and treatment failure were observed. Thus, our findings suggest that GGT elevation is an independent predictor of treatment failure in HIV/HCV that can easily be incorporated into predictive algorithms.