Analgaesic Effect of Erector Spinae Plane Block in Coronary Surgery: A Randomised Controlled Trial.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of preemptive erector spinae plane (ESP) block application on postoperative pain scores and opioid demand in off-pump coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. STUDY DESIGN: Randomised-controlled trial. Place and Duration of the Study: Department of Anaesthesiology and Reanimation, Abant Izzet Baysal University (AIBU) Medical School, Bolu, Turkiye, from November 2020 to April 2021. METHODOLOGY: Fifty patients between the ages of 50 and 75 years, received CABG surgery. These participants who were at risk of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) III were randomly divided into two groups: ESP (Group E) and Control (Group C). Intervention in Group E was performed bilaterally at the T5 level before the operation. In the study, the primary outcome was postoperative opioid demand while the secondary outcomes consisted of intraoperative opioid demand, visual analogue scale scores, and the duration of hospital stay. RESULTS: Tramadol demand was significantly decreased in Group E at 0-1, 1-12, 12-24, and 0-48 hours (p <0.05). Intraoperative fentanyl demand for Group E was also statistically significantly decreased (p= 0.001). In Group E, the visual analogue scale scores at 30 minutes, 1st, 2nd, 4th, 8th, 12th hour, and 16th hour after postoperative extubation were observed to be significantly lower than those of Group C (p <0.05). CONCLUSION: Preemptive ESP block application in CABG surgery patients reduced postoperative tramadol demand, intraoperative fentanyl demand, and postoperative pain scores. KEY WORDS: Coronary artery bypass surgery, Erector spinae plane block, Acute postoperative pain.

C-reactive protein-to-serum albumin ratio as a marker of prognosis in adult intensive care population.

BACKGROUND: Patients in intensive care unit (ICU) require close follow up and clinical attention due to variability in the course of their underlying morbidities. The estimation of prognosis in these subjects has an utmost importance. Recent studies showed that C-reactive protein-to-serum albumin ratio (CAR) could be a reliable marker of inflammation in certain conditions. We aimed to compare CAR levels of deceased patients to those in survived subjects treated in ICU. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the data of adult patients. CAR was simply calculated by dividing the levels of CRP by those of serum albumin. Patients were grouped either as deceased or survived according to the prognosis. The data of the survived and deceased ICU subjects were compared. RESULTS: A total of 208 subjects, 101 deceased and 107 survived, were enrolled in the study. Median CAR levels of the deceased and survived subjects were 49.5 (3-153 %) and 11 (0.2-119 %), respectively (p < 0.001). CAR was significantly correlated with PDW (r = 0.24; p < 0.001) and serum creatinine (r = 0.27; p < 0.001) levels. In ROC analysis, CAR values higher than 30.2 % have 72 % sensitivity and 70 % specificity in predicting mortality in ICU population (AUC: 0.74; p < 0.001; 95% CI: 0.67-0.81). CONCLUSIONS: We suggest that CAR levels of the subjects in ICU should be evaluated during medical care. Increased CAR levels should alert physicians for a worse outcome in those subjects (Tab. 1, Fig. 1, Ref. 21). Text in PDF www.elis.sk Keywords: C-reactive protein-to-serum albumin ratio, intensive care, mortality.

Multi-inflammatory Index as a Novel Mortality Predictor in Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients.

AIM: Systemic inflammation has a crucial role in the pathogenesis and mortality of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Multi-inflammatory index (MII) is a novel index related with systemic inflammation. In this study, we investigated the relationship between MII and in-hospital mortality in COVID-19 patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of COVID-19 patients followed-up in the ICU of our institution between 01.04.2020 and 01.10.2021. Patients were classified into two groups according to mortality status as survivors and non-survivors. Various inflammatory parameters of the groups were compared and their efficacy in predicting mortality was investigated. RESULTS: Out of 348 study patients, 86 cases (24.7%) were in the survived group and 262 cases (75.3%) were in the dead group. The median age of the mortal group was significantly higher than that of the survived group (65.5 vs 76, P < .001). Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that among all the included inflammatory parameters, MII showed the best efficacy for predicting mortality (OR: 0.999; 95% CI: 0.9991-0.9998; P = .003). CONCLUSION: MII, a new combination of Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and C-reactive protein (CRP), is a simple and practical biomarker that can help us in the prediction of mortality in COVID-19 patients followed-up in the ICU.