Ultra-Early Induction of General Anesthesia for Reducing Rebleeding Rates in Patients with Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage.

OBJECTIVE: Rebleeding of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) is one of the significant risk factors for poor clinical outcome. The rebleeding risk is the highest during the acute phase with an approximate rebleeding rate of 9-17% within the first 24 h. Theoretically, general anesthesia can stabilize a patient's vital signs; however, its effectiveness as initial management for preventing post-aSAH rebleeding remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility and safety of ultra-early general anesthesia induction for reducing the rebleeding rates among patients with aSAH. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated patients with aSAH who were admitted to our department between January 2013 and December 2019. All the patients underwent ultra-early general anesthesia induction as initial management regardless of their severity. We evaluated the rebleeding rate before definitive treatment, factors influencing rebleeding, and general anesthesia complications. RESULTS: We included 191 patients with two-third of them having a poor clinical grade (World Federation of Neurological Society [WFNS] grade IV or V). The median duration from admission to general anesthesia induction was 22 min. Rebleeding before definitive treatment occurred in nine patients (4.7%). There were significant differences in the Glasgow Coma Scale score (p = 0.047), WFNS grade (p = 0.02), and dissecting aneurysm (p <0.001) between the rebleeding and non-rebleeding patients. There were no cases of unsuccessful tracheal intubation or rebleeding during general anesthesia induction. CONCLUSION: Ultra-early general anesthesia induction could be performed safely in patients with aSAH, regardless of the WFNS grade; moreover, it resulted in lower rebleeding rate than that reported in previous epidemiological reports.

Functional Outcome Following Ultra-Early Treatment for Ruptured Aneurysms in Patients with Poor-Grade Subarachnoid Hemorrhage.

BACKGROUND: Little is known regarding functional outcome following poor-grade (World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies grades IV and V) aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH), especially in individuals treated aggressively in the early phase after ictus. METHODS: We provided patients with aSAH with ultra-early definitive treatment, coiling or clipping, within 6 hours from arrival as per protocol. We classified the patients into 3 groups according to their computed tomography findings: Group 1, intraventricular hemorrhage with obstructive hydrocephalus; Group 2, massive intracerebral hemorrhage with brain herniation; and Group 3, neither Group 1 nor Group 2. We retrospectively evaluated patients with poor-grade aSAH who were admitted to our department between January 2013 and December 2016. We evaluated functional outcome at 6 months, defining modified Rankin Scale (mRS) scores of 0-2 as good and those of 3-6 as poor outcomes. RESULTS: A good functional outcome was observed in 39.4% (28/71) of all cases. All-cause mortality at 6 months was 15.5% (11/71). A good outcome in Group 3 was significantly higher than that in the other two groups (Group 1 and 2 vs. Group 3, 20.8% vs. 48.9%, p = 0.02), even after adjustment with a multiple logistic regression analysis (odds ratio 6.1, 95% confidence interval 1.1 to 34.8). CONCLUSIONS: Approximately 40% of patients with poor-grade aSAH became functionally independent, and approximately half of the patients with poor-grade aSAH who had neither intraventricular hemorrhage with obstructive hydrocephalus nor with brain herniation had good functional outcomes. Although further trials are required to confirm our results, ultra-early surgery may be considered for patients with poor-grade aSAH.

Amiodarone or nifekalant upon hospital arrival for refractory ventricular fibrillation after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

BACKGROUND: We evaluated the association between nifekalant or amiodarone on hospital admission and in-hospital mortality for cardiac arrest patients with persistent ventricular fibrillation on hospital arrival. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study using the Japanese Diagnosis Procedure Combination inpatient database. We identified 2961 patients who suffered cardiogenic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and who had ventricular fibrillation on hospital arrival between July 2007 and March 2013. Patients were categorized into amiodarone (n=2353) and nifekalant (n=608) groups, from which 525 propensity score-matched pairs were generated. RESULTS: We found a significant difference in the admission rate between the nifekalant and amiodarone groups in propensity score-matched groups (75.6% vs. 69.3%, respectively; difference, 6.3%; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.9-11.7). An analysis using the hospital nifekalant/amiodarone rate as an instrumental variable found that receiving nifekalant was associated with an improved admission rate (22.2%, 95% CI, 11.9-32.4). We found no significant difference in in-hospital mortality between the nifekalant and amiodarone groups (81.5% vs. 82.1%, respectively; difference, -0.6%; 95% CI, -5.2 to 4.1). Instrumental variable analysis showed that receiving nifekalant was not associated with reduced in-hospital mortality (6.2%, 95% CI, -2.4 to 14.8). CONCLUSIONS: This nationwide study suggested no significant in-hospital mortality association between nifekalant and amiodarone for cardiogenic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients with ventricular fibrillation/persistent ventricular tachycardia on hospital arrival. Although nifekalant may potentially improve hospital admission rates compared with amiodarone for these patients, further studies are required to confirm our results.