Quality of recovery in patients administered remimazolam versus those administered an inhalant agent for the maintenance of general anesthesia: a randomized control trial.

BACKGROUND: Remimazolam is a novel intravenous benzodiazepine that is appropriate for the maintenance of anesthesia. Quality of recovery is an important component of health care quality, but there is no published randomized control trial focused on the quality of recovery in patients undergoing total intravenous anesthesia with remimazolam. METHODS: This parallel-group, single-blind randomized control trial at a tertiary care medical center in South Korea was conducted to determine the difference in the quality of recovery between the patients administered remimazolam and those administered an inhalant anesthetic agent. A total of 168 patients aged 19-65 years who underwent elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy or robotic gynecologic surgery were considered for enrollment. Randomization was performed using sealed envelopes containing computer-generated random allocation sequences. Remimazolam was administered for the maintenance of anesthesia in the remimazolam group (Group R), and desflurane was administered in the desflurane group (Group D). The induction protocol and the target value of the bispectral index were identical in both groups. Patients were blinded to the drug that was administered until they finished the postoperative questionnaire. The main outcome measure was the decrement of the QoR-40 score on postoperative day 1 compared to the QoR-40 score on the day before surgery. RESULTS: A total of 165 patients were analyzed. The preoperative and postoperative global QoR-40 scores were 183 and 152 (IQR 173-192 and 136-169), respectively. The perioperative decrement of the global QoR-40 score was 29.96 ± 22.49. The decrement of the QoR-40 score was smaller in Group R than in Group D (26.99 versus 32.90, respectively; mean difference 5.91, 95% confidence interval -0.96-12.79). After adjustment for sex, the type of surgery and surgical time, the administration of remimazolam resulted in a 7.03-point (95% CI 0.35-13.72) less decrement of the QoR-40 score than desflurane. There were no severe adverse events in either group. CONCLUSION: Total intravenous anesthesia maintained with remimazolam provides a better quality of recovery than anesthesia maintained with an inhalant agent in patients undergoing laparoscopic surgery. Additionally, postoperative nausea and vomiting were largely reduced with remimazolam. TRIAL REGISTRATION: KCT0006288 , Clinical Research Information Service (CRIS), Republic of Korea Registration date: 23/06/2021.

Metabolic Syndrome Severity Score for Predicting Cardiovascular Events: A Nationwide Population-Based Study from Korea.

BACKGROUND: Recently, a metabolic syndrome severity score (MS score) using a dataset of the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys has been developed. We aimed to determine whether the newly developed score is a significant predictor of cardiovascular (CV) events among the Korean population. METHODS: From the Korean National Health Insurance System, 2,541,364 (aged 40 to 59 years) subjects with no history of CV events (ischemic stroke or myocardial infarction [MI]), who underwent health examinations from 2009 to 2011 and were followed up until 2014 to 2017, were identified. Cox proportional hazard model was employed to investigate the association between MS score and CV events. Model performance of MS score for predicting CV events was compared to that of conventional metabolic syndrome diagnostic criteria (Adult Treatment Program III [ATP-III]) using the Akaike information criterion and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. RESULTS: Over a median follow-up of 6 years, 15,762 cases of CV events were reported. MS score at baseline showed a linear association with incident CV events. In the multivariable-adjusted model, the hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals) comparing the highest versus lowest quartiles of MS score were 1.48 (1.36 to 1.60) for MI and 1.89 (1.74 to 2.05) for stroke. Model fitness and performance of the MS score in predicting CV events were superior to those of ATP-III. CONCLUSION: The newly developed age- and sex-specific continuous MS score for the Korean population is an independent predictor of ischemic stroke and MI in Korean middle-aged adults even after adjusting for confounding factors.