Length of surgical intensive care unit stay and risk factors.

OBJECTIVE: To assess length of stay of patients in the surgical intensive care unit (ICU) and to determine risk factors for a long ICU stay. DESIGN: Review of retrospective data. SETTING: University hospital surgical ICU. PATIENTS: Out of a total of 681 admissions to the surgical ICU during a one year period (July 1, 1996 - June 30, 1997), 613 had complete medical data which were analysed. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The frequency distribution was skewed to the right. The median and mode were the same (2 days). 35.89 per cent of the ICU admissions had a long stay (>2 days). Independent risk factors for a long ICU stay in the multivariate logistic regression analysis are increasing age, unstable condition, long weaning time, diuretic therapy and re-operation. CONCLUSION: Knowing the length of ICU stay, risk factors for a long ICU stay and how to shorten the ICU stay have potential application in optimizing ICU resource planning and decreasing the health care cost.

Intubating conditions after three different doses of rocuronium in the elderly.

This randomized controlled trial study evaluated the intubating conditions at 1 minute after 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 mg/kg of rocuronium in 60 Thai elderly patients who enrolled for elective surgery under general anesthesia with fentanyl, thiopental and halothane at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital. Excellent or good conditions were observed in 50 per cent (p<0.05) at rocuronium 0.3 mg/kg, compared with 95 and 85 per cent at 0.6 and 0.9 mg/kg of rocuronium, respectively but the excellent conditions were 5 (p<0.05), 30 and 45 per cent from each dose. Therefore, rocuronium 0.6 or 0.9 mg/kg should be adequate for intubation in elective, elderly patients but was inadequate for emergency case. In addition, rocuronium 0.3 mg/kg is insufficient for intubation at 1 minute in this age group. No serious side effects of the drug nor complications were found in this study.

A multicenter randomized double-blind comparison of remifentanil and alfentanil during total intravenous anaesthesia for out-patient laparoscopic gynaecological procedures.

We compared Remifentanil, an esterase-metabolized opioid, with Alfentanil as part of the total intravenous anesthesia with propofol and atracurium for out-patient laparoscopic gynaecological procedures in a multicenter randomized, double-blind study. We chose Remifentanil 1 mg./kg.for bolus injection and a continuous infusion of 0.25-0.5 microg./kg./min, compared to Alfentanil 20 microg./kg. For bolus injection and a continuous infusion of 0.5-1 microg./kg./min. Fifty-nine patients received Remifentanil, and sixty-three received Alfentanil. Patients who received Remifetanil experienced significantly fewer stress responses to surgical stimuli (p < 0.05) and required fewer additional boluses of study drugs and propofol (p < 0.05) than Alfentanil during the intraoperative period. Response time to verbal commands, spontaneous respiration, adequate respiration and tracheal extubation, were not significantly different between these two opioids. Remifentanil patients, required more fentanyl for post operative pain control, 40 from 59 cases in the Remifentanil group and 22 from 63 cases in the Alfentanil group (p < 0.05) but still showed significantly better recovery of psychomotor function by Aldrete score of ten at 50 and 60 min (p < 0.05) than Alfentanil patients. The incidence of intraoperative bradycardia was significantly higher with Remifentanil. Other incidences of nausea, emesis, urinary retention and postural hypotension were similar. All patients were ready to be discharged from the hospital within two hours after extubation except for one patient in the Alfentanil group who needed five hours of hospital stay because of urinary retention, nausea and severe emesis.