Pre-hospital pelvic girdle injury: Improving diagnostic accuracy in a physician-led trauma service.

BACKGROUND: Examination of missed injuries in our physician-led pre-hospital trauma service indicated that the significant injuries missed were often pelvic fractures. We therefore conducted a study whose aim was to evaluate the pre-hospital diagnostic accuracy of pelvic girdle injuries, and how this would be affected by implementing the pelvic injury treatment guidelines recently published by the Faculty of Pre-Hospital Care. STUDY DESIGN: All blunt trauma patients attended in a 5-month period were included in the study. The presence or absence of pelvic girdle injury on computed tomography (CT) or, if unavailable, pelvic X-ray was used as a primary outcome measure. A retrospective database and case note review was conducted to identify patients who had pelvic binder applied in the study period. For the purposes of the study, pelvic ring and acetabular fractures were grouped together as patients with suspected pelvic girdle injury that should be fitted with a pelvic binder in the pre-hospital setting. The sensitivity and specificity, relating to the presence of pelvic girdle injury in patients with pelvic binders, was calculated in order to determine pre-hospital diagnostic accuracy. RESULTS: 785 patients were attended during the study period. 170 met the study inclusion criteria. 26 (15.3%) sustained a pelvic girdle injury. 45 (26.5%) had a pelvic binder applied. There were eight missed fractures (31%), of which the majority (six) sustained less severe injuries that were managed non-operatively. Two patients required operative fixation. Radiological images and/or reports were available on 169 (99.4%) patients. As a test of the presence of pelvic fracture, pelvic binder application had a sensitivity of 0.69 (95% CI 0.50-0.85) and a specificity of 0.81 (95% CI 0.74-0.87). CONCLUSIONS: Even with a careful clinical assessment and a low threshold for binder application, this study highlights the problems of distracting injury when trying to diagnose and manage pelvic fractures. By implementing the pelvic treatment guidelines published by the Faculty of Pre-hospital Care, the missed injury rate could be reduced from 31% to 8%.

A national audit of antibiotic prophylaxis in elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

INTRODUCTION: Laparoscopic surgeons in Great Britain and Ireland were surveyed to assess their use of antibiotic prophylaxis in elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy. This followed a Cochrane review that found no evidence to support the use of antibiotic prophylaxis in routine cases. METHODS: Data were collected on routine use of antibiotics in elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy, and how that was influenced by factors such as bile spillage, patient co-morbidities and surgeons' experience. An online questionnaire was sent to 450 laparoscopic surgeons in December 2011. RESULTS: Data were received from 111 surgeons (87 consultants) representing over 7,000 cases per year. In routine cases without bile spillage, 64% of respondents gave no antibiotics and 36% gave a single dose. In cases with bile spillage, 11% gave no antibiotics. However, 80% gave one dose and 7% gave three doses. Co-amoxiclav was used by 75% of surgeons. Surgeons are more likely to give antibiotics when patients have risk factors for infective endocarditis. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests over 20,000 doses of antibiotics and over £100,000 could be saved annually if surgeons modified their practice to follow current guidelines.

Retrievable inferior vena cava filter use in major trauma.

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) remains a devastating complication among trauma patients. However, conventional VTE prophylaxis is often contraindicated in major trauma patients due to concurrent injuries. This article discusses the use of retrievable inferior vena cava filters as a method for VTE prophylaxis in major trauma patients.

Addition of bicarbonate to plain bupivacaine does not significantly alter the onset or duration of plexus anesthesia.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: In an effort to elucidate further the effect of alkalinization of bupivacaine on its anesthetic effect, a study was undertaken using alkalinized and non-alkalinized bupivacaine for lumbar plexus block and comparing the results with those obtained previously with brachial plexus block. METHODS: Thirty consenting adult patients about to undergo lower extremity surgery under regional anesthesia were selected for the study. All of the patients received an inguinal paravascular lumbar plexus block ("3-in-1 block"), along with a sciatic block to allow the anticipated surgery to be carried out. The patients were divided into two groups, one receiving plain "alkalinized" 0.5% bupivacaine; the other receiving plain "non-alkalinized" 0.5% bupivacaine. After each lumbar plexus block, the onset and duration of analgesia and anesthesia of the nerves derived from the lumbar plexus were determined by an independent investigator who was unaware of which solution had been administered. RESULTS: There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups with respect to the onset or duration of anesthesia and analgesia. CONCLUSIONS: The data obtained in the present study indicate that alkalinization of non-epinephrine-containing bupivacaine does not reduce the latency or increase the duration of analgesia or anesthesia after lumbar plexus block. Since most of the studies that do show such an effect of alkalinization were carried out using epinephrine-containing bupivacaine, it is postulated that in those studies alkalinization contributed to the decrease in latency and increase in duration, not so much by providing an increased amount of local anesthetic in the free base form, but by reactivating epinephrine's vasoconstrictor activity, which is inactivated by a low pH.

Continuous spinal anesthesia and post dural puncture headache: a retrospective study.

Continuous spinal anesthesia (CSA) fell into disuse because of a presumed high incidence of post dural puncture headache (PDPH). A careful retrospective study of 226 continuous spinal anesthetics administered for a variety of surgical (not obstetric) procedures was carried out and indicated that none of the patients developed PDPH. While 62% of the patients were older than 60 years of age, a group with a low incidence of PDPH, it was expected that some of the younger patients would develop this complication, especially since 94% of the dural punctures were carried out with 17- and 18-gauge needles. This study also revealed only a 12% incidence of hypotension, an impressive finding because 64% of the patients were considered ASA III or IV. There were no other intraoperative or postoperative complications or deaths due to CSA. This retrospective study indicates that CSA, properly carried out with 17- and 18-gauge needles, is not necessarily associated with a high incidence of PDPH; and in view of its low morbidity and mortality, CSA is particularly useful and safe in the poor-risk elderly patient. This study also raises the question as to whether there is a need for the recently developed (and expensive) microcatheters that fit through very small-bore needles.

A complete regional anesthesia technique for cardiac pacemaker insertion.

Sixteen consecutive adult patients scheduled for permanent transvenous cardiac pacemaker insertion received as their total anesthetic the combination of a cervical plexus block and blocks of the second, third, and fourth intercostal nerves using a combination of 1% mepivacaine and 0.2% tetracaine with epinephrine, 1:200,000. This technique consistently provided complete surgical anesthesia of the third cervical (C3) through the fourth thoracic (T4) dermatomes, without anesthesia of the brachial plexus. Anesthesia was adequate for the surgical procedure without the need for supplemental analgesia or anesthesia in all cases. Because fluoroscopy was used routinely for the surgical procedure, it was possible to document that there were no instances of diaphragmatic paralysis or pneumothorax. In contrast to other reports, this technique provides surgical anesthesia that is adequate for all of the approaches used for transvenous pacemaker implantation, except for placement of a battery in an abdominal pouch. There were no serious complications and/or side effects in any of the patients studied.

Protection from stress of tracheal intubation with midazolam-sufentanil neuroleptanalgesia.

Although diazepam has been shown to reduce the stress response, the protective effect of midazolam, a newer benzodiazepine from a stressful event, tracheal intubation, has not been studied as yet by catecholamine assays in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery, who also receive intravenous sufentanil as a component of the neuroleptanalgesic technique. Therefore, we evaluated the influence of midazolam in combination with sufentanil on the plasma free catecholamines before and after midazolam, after sufentanil and pancuronium and before and after intubation in 15 adult patients undergoing coronary artery surgery. After routine premedication, midazolam 0.14 +/- 0.01 mg.kg-1 i.v. was given over 1 min followed 5 min later by sufentanil in incremental i.v. doses of 1.5 micrograms.kg-1 to a total pre-intubation dose of 4.0-5.0 micrograms.kg-1 injected in 10 min. The incremental doses of sufentanil were given when a greater than 15 per cent increase in rate-pressure product occurred. One min after the initial dose of sufentanil, pancuronium 0.1 mg.kg-1 i.v. was given to provide muscle relaxation. Midazolam administration per se caused a significant decrease in systolic and diastolic blood pressures with a concomitant reduction in systemic vascular resistance. Sufentanil reduced the left ventricular stroke-work index. Tracheal intubation, a strong stressor during anesthesia, elicited no increase in catecholamines and/or adverse hemodynamic responses in contrast to a marked increase in plasma catecholamines routinely observed in patients anesthetized by the commonly used technique of intravenous barbiturates in combination with succinylcholine.

pH adjustment schedule for the amide local anesthetics.

Several studies have indicated that the addition of sodium bicarbonate to solutions of local anesthetics to raise the pH closer to the pKa shortens the latency, increases the intensity, and prolongs the duration of the resultant neural blockade. However, the addition of too much bicarbonate will cause precipitation, and this may result in the injection of particulate free base along with the solution. The present study was carried out to determine the maximal amount of sodium bicarbonate that can be added to each of the amide local anesthetics without the formation of a precipitate, and, thus, to construct a pH adjustment schedule to simplify the alkalinization of local anesthetics in clinical practice.

Haemodynamic stability with midazolam-sufentanil analgesia in cardiac surgical patients.

Since the administration of both diazepam and midazolam are claimed to cause adverse haemodynamic effects following fentanyl or sufentanil intravenous injection, we evaluated the effectiveness and safety of the reverse sequence, (midazolam-sufentanil) on haemodynamic variables, adequacy of analgesia, amnesia and recovery in 15 adult patients undergoing coronary artery surgery (with a mean +/- SEM ejection fraction of 0.41 +/- 0.03). After routine premedication, midazolam 0.14 +/- 0.01 mg.kg-1 IV was given over one min followed 5 min later by sufentanil in incremental IV doses of 1.5 micrograms.kg-1 to a total pre-intubation dose of 4.0-5.0 micrograms.kg-1 injected in 10 min. One minute after the initial dose of sufentanil, pancuronium 0.1 mg.kg-1 IV was given in 30 seconds. The incremental doses of sufentanil were based on a greater than 15 per cent increase in rate-pressure product. The mean dose of sufentanil before cardiopulmonary bypass was 9.6 +/- 2.1 micrograms.kg-1 and 13.9 +/- 1.3 micrograms.kg-1 for the entire procedure. A significant decrease in systolic and diastolic blood pressures occurred after midazolam administration which was sustained until sternotomy. A significant reduction in systemic vascular resistance occurred following midazolam. Sufentanil reduced the left ventricular stroke-work index. Tracheal intubation, skin incision and sternotomy elicited no adverse haemodynamic responses. Adequate analgesia, complete amnesia and early recovery of wakefulness were observed.