Acute postoperative pain remains a major problem, resulting in multiple undesirable outcomes if inadequately controlled. Most surgical patients spend their immediate postoperative period in the postanesthesia care unit (PACU), where pain management, being unsatisfactory and requiring improvements, affects further recovery. Recent studies on postoperative pain management in the PACU were reviewe...

Pain management in the postanesthesia care unit (PACU) is continually evolving, with several new nonopioids expanding the list of available agents. Pain in the PACU is not an inevitable outcome of surgery. With careful planning, multimodal analgesic techniques instituted preoperatively will reduce pain in the PACU. Accurate assessment of the characteristics of pain will direct rational drug cho...

Eight patients suffering various causes of transient postoperative respiratory failure in the postanesthesia care unit were treated with short-term noninvasive pressure-support ventilation administered through a tight-fitting face mask. Intubation was avoided in all of them, and no complications were observed, as assessed by the treating anesthesiologist and from review of their charts. Indicat...

A 44-yr-old woman with a drug-eluting coronary stent placement two weeks before surgery suffered a myocardial infarction in the postanesthesia care unit immediately after hysterectomy. She had missed only one dose of aspirin and clopidogrel preoperatively. Early recognition of subacute stent thrombosis and urgent percutaneous coronary intervention probably prevented her death. In this case repo...

conclusions many caring behaviors associate with aesthetic experience for both patients and nurses and despite two different views, findings of this study showed that these experiences were similar in most cases. the aesthetics of nursing care was defined as what reflects the holistic nature of nursing with an emphasis on spirituality and skill. results of this study are effective in identifica...

General anesthesia and mechanical ventilation impair pulmonary function, even in normal individuals, and result in decreased oxygenation in the postanesthesia period. They also cause a reduction in functional residual capacity of up to 50% of the preanesthesia value. It has been shown that pulmonary atelectasis is a common finding in anesthetized individuals because it occurs in 85% to 90% of h...

BACKGROUND During the perioperative care of infants with hypertrophic pyloric stenosis, an opioid-sparing technique is often advocated due to concerns such as postoperative hypoventilation and apnea. Although the rectal administration of acetaminophen is commonly employed, an intravenous (IV) preparation is also currently available, but only limited data are available regarding IV acetaminophen...

BACKGROUND The goal of this study was to evaluate whether preoperative pressure pain sensitivity testing is predictive of postoperative surgical pain. METHODS Female subjects undergoing lower abdominal gynecologic surgery were studied. A pressure algometer was used preoperatively to determine the pressure pain threshold and tolerance. A visual analog scale (VAS) was used to assess postoperati...