AANA Journal/June 2007/Vol. 75, No. 3 193 Carotid endarterectomy is a procedure used to treat severe atherosclerotic occlusive disease involving the internal carotid arteries, most often at the common carotid artery bifurcation. The operation is performed by opening the common carotid arteries and the proximal internal carotid arteries in the neck, removing plaques from the inside of the arteri...

The first clinical uses of a local anesthetic agent occurred in 1884, when cocaine was employed as a topical agent for eye surgery and to produce a nerve block. These events inaugurated a new era, that of regional anesthesia. New applications were developed, including spinal, epidural, and caudal anesthesia. The search for a better local anesthetic led to chemical synthesis of a number of other...

This review will focus on inhalational anesthetic neuroprotection during cerebral ischemia and inhalational anesthetic preconditioning before ischemic brain injury. The limitations and challenges of past and current research in this area will be addressed before reviewing experimental and clinical studies evaluating the effects of inhalational anesthetics before and during cerebral ischemia. Me...

Anesthetic agents provide patient comfort and optimize conditions for surgical and procedural interventions. These agents have been shown to modulate autophagy, which is a cellular mechanism that maintains tissue homeostasis by degrading and recycling excess, aged, or dysfunctional proteins. However, it is not always clear if upregulated autophagy is beneficial or harmful. This review assesses ...