Impact of right upper quadrant cytoreductive techniques with extensive liver mobilization on postoperative hepatic function and risk of liver failure in patients with advanced ovarian cancer.

OBJECTIVE: Evaluate postoperative hepatic-function in patients with advanced ovarian cancer (OC) who underwent extensive right upper-quadrant (RUQ) cytoreduction in primary, relapsed or interval settings. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed all patients with OC who underwent liver resection, mobilization and/or diaphragmatic-stripping between 01/2013 and 12/2016. Postoperative liver enzyme function (LFTs), assessed by alanine transaminase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and bilirubin (Bil), was correlated with postoperative complications. RESULTS: 132 patients were identified. 81 patients (61%) underwent upfront, 25(19%) interval and 26(20%) secondary cytoreduction. The surgical procedures were right diaphragmatic peritoneal stripping (81/132;61%), full-thickness resection (42/132;32%), liver-capsule resection (85/132;64%), porta-hepatis tumor resection (11/132;8%) and partial hepatectomy (5/132;4%). 74%(98/132) of patients increased their LFTs postoperatively with a peak at 24-hours. Highest ALT median was 1.7-fold of upper normal limit (UNL), with the highest ALT value rising up to 28-fold UNL on the 1st postoperative day (PoD)(range 6-1792 IU/L). Median value of highest ALP was within normal, with the highest ALP value rising up to 4-fold UNL on PoD 5(range 22-512 IU/L). Median value of highest Bilirubin level was also within normal, with highest Bilirubin level rising up to 6-fold UNL on PoD 5(range: 2-120 µmol/L). Mean LFT-normalization time was 7 days (range: 3-14 days). No significant morbidity was directly linked to LFT deterioration, apart from one case (0.8%) of fatal fulminant hepatic-failure. CONCLUSION: RUQ-cytoreduction is almost always associated with a transient LFT-increase, with no significant clinical implications and spontaneous normalization within the first postoperative week. Due to the existing risk of fulminant liver failure, albeit rare and difficult to predict, postoperatively elevated LFTs should be monitored, until normalization. Large prospective studies are required to assess the predictive value of LFTs and other risk factors for postoperative hepatic failure in patients with OC undergoing extensive RUQ-cytoreduction.

Preeclampsia: pathophysiology, old and new strategies for management.

Preeclampsia continues to be a leading cause of maternal and foetal mortality and morbidity worldwide. It is defined as hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks' gestation, which resolves after delivery. It is complicated by intracerebral haemorrhage, pulmonary oedema and respiratory and hepatic failure, which form the commonest causes of death. There is a genetic and immunological element to the pathophysiology of the disease, which is still not completely understood, but the underlying cause is an abnormality of placentation and placental hypoxia. This is thought to result in an imbalance of angiogenic and antiangiogenic proteins that leads to systemic endothelial disruption and multiorgan involvement. Successful treatment requires delivery of the placenta and management should be undertaken by a multidisciplinary team, aiming primarily to stabilise the condition of the mother before delivery is contemplated. Guidelines and protocols all have common management goals which are to treat hypertension, prevent seizures, control fluid intake and optimise the timing of delivery. Hypertension can be treated with a range of antihypertensive drugs, but labetalol is regarded as first-line therapy. Magnesium sulphate is the treatment of choice for eclampsia because it reduces the risk of seizures by more than 50%. A fluid restriction policy should be used to prevent iatrogenic pulmonary oedema. Effective anaesthetic management relies on neuraxial techniques. Epidural, combined spinal-epidural and single-shot spinal anaesthetic techniques are all perfectly acceptable and should be actively promoted to the mother unless contraindications such as thrombocytopaenia exist.

The effect of posture and baricity on the spread of intrathecal bupivacaine for elective cesarean delivery.

Posture and baricity during induction of spinal anesthesia with intrathecal drugs are believed to be important in determining spread within the cerebrospinal fluid. In this double-blind prospective study, 150 patients undergoing elective cesarean delivery were randomized to receive a hyperbaric, isobaric, or hypobaric intrathecal solution of 10 mg bupivacaine during spinal anesthesia induced in either the sitting or right lateral position. After an intrathecal injection using a combined-spinal technique patients were placed in the supine wedged position. We determined the densities of the three intrathecal solutions from a previously validated formula and measured using a DMA-450 density meter. Data collection included sensory level, motor block, episodes of hypotension, and ephedrine use. Statistical analysis included analysis of variance and Cuzick's trend. In the lateral position, baricity had no effect on the spread of sensory levels for bupivacaine compared to the sitting position, where there was a statistically significant difference in spread with the hypobaric solution producing higher levels of analgesia than the hyperbaric solution (P = 0.002). However, the overall differences in maximal spread only differed by one dermatome, with the hyperbaric solution achieving a median maximum sensory level to T3 compared with T2 for the isobaric and hypobaric solutions. Motor block was significantly (P = 0.029) reduced with increasing baricity and this trend was significant (P = 0.033) for the lateral position only. Hypotension incidence and ephedrine use increased with decreasing baricity (P = 0.003 and 0.004 respectively), with the hypobaric sitting group having the most frequent incidence of hypotension (76%) as well as cervical blocks (24%; P = 0.032).

Predicting the density of bupivacaine and bupivacaine-opioid combinations.

IMPLICATIONS: Manipulating the density of local anesthetic solutions by using a simple formula may be clinically useful in producing optimal density solutions for spinal anesthesia under a variety of clinical conditions.