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BACKGROUND: During abdominal surgery under regional anesthesia, nausea may happen due to several contributing factors. This study compared the effects of ondansetron and dexamethasone on nausea and vomiting under spinal anesthesia. METHODS: One hundred and twenty patients of 15 to 35 years old with ASA class I and II were enrolled. Before administering either ondansetron or dexamethasone, blood pressure and heart rate of the patients were recorded. The patients received 70 mg of 5% lidocaine for spinal anesthesia. Patients who received 6 mg of ondansetron were considered as group A, while group B received 8 mg of dexamethasone. The level of nausea and vomiting, blood pressure, heart rate and respiratory rate of each patient was measured at 1, 5, 10, 15 and 30 minutes after spinal anesthesia and during recovery (every 5 minutes). RESULTS: There was a significant difference between nausea and vomiting between the two groups after spinal anesthesia within the first and fifth minutes. There was no significant difference between nausea and vomiting between the two groups within 10, 15 and 30 minutes and during recovery at 5, 10, 15 and 30 minutes. CONCLUSION: Dexamethasone and ondansetron were shown to equally reduce the incidence of nausea and vomiting under spinal anesthesia and can be recommended as a good choice for prevention of nausea and vomiting during surgeries.
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BACKGROUND: New drugs are increasingly used to induce analgesia during surgeries. This study compared the analgesic effects of paracetamol and magnesium sulfate. METHODS: Sixty patients with American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) class I or II patients who were candidates for surgery of the lower limbs were randomly divided into three equal groups who were age and gender matched. Group 1 received paracetamol, and group 2, the magnesium sulfate during surgery and group 3 as the control. Pain intensities were measured and recorded using the Visual Analog Scale before surgery, in the recovery room, and 6, 12, and 18 hours after surgery. RESULTS: Pain intensities (7.10, 5.80, and 4.10) were higher in the control group; 6, 12, and 18 hours after surgery compared to the paracetamol (6.45, 4.15, 2.50) and the magnesium groups (7.25, 4.55, and 2.05), but the difference was not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: Paracetamol and magnesium sulfate were shown to have postoperative analgesic effects and reduce the quantity of narcotic use after surgery.
RESUMO
AIMS: Psychiatric disorders are common among substance dependants. The objectives of this study were to assess the rate of neurotic disorders among opioid addicts, and reassess the rate of those neurotic disorders two weeks after complete detoxification of the patients. MEASUREMENTS: Data were gathered from 500 (496 men and 4 women) opioid dependants, using DSM-IV criteria. The Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire (MHQ) was used to measure free-floating anxiety, depression, phobia, obsession, hysteria and somatization. RESULTS: Four hundred and ninety-six (99.2%) of the subjects were men of whom the majority (65.2%) were married, 26.4% single and the others were divorced or separated. Three hundred and thirty-four (66.8%) were in age range of 20 to 39 years. Of the subjects 154 (30.8) were self-employed, 116 (23.2%) were factory workers, 100 (20%) unemployed, 64 (12.8%) employees and 32 (6.4%) retailers. The majority, 322 (64.4%), reported elementary and high school as their level of education and only 20 (4%) were illiterate. The means for neurotic disorders (using the MHQ) before and two weeks after detoxification were 10.12 and 9.98 for anxiety, 7.54 and 7.41 for phobia, 10.10 and 9.76 for depression, 11.11 and 11.05 for obsession, 8.47 and 8.49 for hysteria and 9.82 and 9.46 for somatization, respectively. The mean difference was significant only for depression. CONCLUSIONS: Present findings indicated that the rate of neurotic disorders in opioid dependants is high and (except for depression) was not significantly different before detoxification and two weeks after detoxification. Opium was found to be the most prevalent form of opioid used. Also it can be concluded that during the last years some demographic characteristics of Iranian opioid addicts in this sample have changed. Cultural attitudes toward substance use quite likely affect the pattern of substance use. These findings can be considered when planning preventive and therapeutic programs.
