Music reduces stress and anxiety of patients in the surgical holding area.

Many patients in the Surgical Holding Area become stressed and anxious. In a hospital setting music reduces patients' anxiety. This study determined that music can reduce the anxiety and stress of patients in the Surgical Holding Area. In this study, one group of subjects listed to music while a second group did not. Subjects who listened to music while in the Surgical Holding Area had significantly less stress and anxiety than did those who did not listen to music. Both groups spent similar lengths of time in the Surgical Holding Area. The results strongly suggest that if music were available to all patients in the Surgical Holding Area, most would select this option, and they would experience less anxiety.

An evaluation of the effectiveness of a computer simulation of anaesthetic uptake and distribution as a teaching tool.

Gas Man is an interactive, microcomputer-based simulation and tutorial designed to teach the principles of anaesthetic uptake and distribution. Using two resident groups, one at a primary university-teaching hospital and the other at a medical school affiliated community hospital, the authors compared residents' knowledge of the subject prior to exposure to the tutorial and the average time spent using the program during a self-paced instruction period. Both groups not only significantly improved their knowledge of uptake and distribution 8 weeks after using this program, but wished to spend additional time with it, implying that it was a pleasant and satisfying way to learn. Computer simulation has the potential to be an important teaching tool in an anaesthesia residency training programme.

Induced moderate hypotensive anesthesia for spinal fusion and Harrington-rod instrumentation.

The effect of moderate hypotensive anesthesia on blood loss, need for transfusion, and length of surgery of forty-nine patients who underwent posterior spinal fusion and Harrington-rod instrumentation was compared retrospectively. Twenty-seven patients were given enflurane as the main anesthetic agent, with fentanyl supplementation, and their blood pressure was maintained at twenty to thirty millimeters of mercury less than the preoperative systolic blood pressure. These patients were compared with twenty-two patients who had been anesthetized with nitrous oxide, oxygen, and narcotic technique and were normotensive throughout the duration of the anesthesia. The results were analyzed by the unpaired Student t test. Moderate hypotensive anesthesia was found to significantly decrease the average blood loss by nearly 40 per cent, reduce the need for transfusion by nearly 45 per cent, and shorten the average operating time by nearly 10 per cent. No complications attributable to the anesthetic technique occurred. The findings of this study suggest that moderate hypotensive anesthesia with enflurane and fentanyl supplementation may be of benefit in scoliosis surgery by reducing blood loss, the need for blood replacement, and operating time.