BACKGROUND Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) generates severe postoperative pain in 60% of patients and moderate pain in 30% of patients. Because inadequate postoperative pain control can hinder early physiotherapy and rehabilitation, it is the most influential factor dictating a good outcome. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of continuous psoas compartment block (PCB) in...

UNLABELLED Nausea and vomiting are frequent adverse effects of patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) with opioids. To identify the optimal prophylactic antiemetic intervention in this setting, we performed a systematic search for randomized trials (MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane library, reference lists, hand-searching, no language restriction) published up to May 1998 that compared prophylactic antiem...

BACKGROUND Acupuncture and acupressure have previously been reported to possess antiemetic effect. We wanted to investigate the "true" and placebo effect of acupressure in prevention of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV). PATIENTS AND METHODS Sixty women undergoing outpatient minor gynaecological surgery were entered into a double-blind and randomised study. One group received acupressu...

BACKGROUND Serotonin syndrome (SS) is becoming a more frequent diagnosis in the intensive care unit (ICU). We sought to determine the clinical presentation, drug exposures, and outcomes of SS in critically ill patients. METHODS A retrospective study of 33 consecutive ICU patients with SS between March 2007 and March 2012 in ICUs in a large teaching hospital. SS was defined using the Hunter Se...

Introduction. For surgery on the upper extremity, the anaesthetist often has a choice between regional anaesthesia (RA) and general anaesthesia (GA). We sought to investigate the possible differences between RA and GA after upper extremity surgery with regard to postoperative patient comfort. Methods. This is a retrospective observational study that was performed at an acute care secondary refe...

BACKGROUND There is growing interest in the anesthetic approach using total intravenous anesthesia (TIVA) with propofol and remifentanil for the prevention of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV). The aim of this study was to compare between the two anesthetic techniques for preventing PONV in the patients undergoing mastoidectomy with tympanoplasty. METHODS After obtaining informed conse...

The judicious use of antiemetic treatment has made chemotherapy tolerable for a considerable number of patients.' As the dosage of antiemetic drugs is increased, however, so side effects-particularly in the central nervous system-are bound to increase in incidence and severity. We report the occurrence of seizures in four patients treated with high dose intravenous domperidone as prophylaxis ag...