Anaesthesia

Big increase in opioid prescriptions and related hospital admissions since 2000

The proportion of patients prescribed opioids and Z-drugs doubled between 2000 and 2012, according to the results of a study into prescribing patterns in dependence-forming medicines, by the Public Health Research Consortium.…

iPads as effective as sedatives in reducing anxiety before surgery, paediatric trial shows

Researchers in France found that iPads were just as effective as midazolam in children and their parents were more satisfied.…

Anaesthesiologists call on UN to resist making ketamine a controlled substance

The World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA) has called for support to protect the status of the anaesthetic ketamine as an essential medicine.  The plea comes in response to repeated attempts by China and other south-east Asian countries that have problems with ketamine…

Two peptides predict cardiomyopathy after brain haemorrhage

Swedish PhD student finds biomarkers that can identify subarachnoid haemorrhage patients at risk of cardiomyopathy.…

Medicine errors can be avoided with clearer IV bag labels, research suggests

Redesigning the labels of intravenous medicine bags can “significantly” reduce the risk of administering the wrong drugs during an operating theatre emergency.…

Pre-anaesthesia sedation may do more harm than good

Researchers have called into question the practice of sedating patients before they are anaesthetised for surgery, finding no benefit in terms of patient experience.…

Anaesthetists campaign for pholcodine cough medicines to become prescription-only products

Anaesthetists in Australia and New Zealand are campaigning for pholcodine-containing cough medicines to become prescription-only products.…

A neglected pioneer of anaesthesia

Henry Hickman demonstrated that carbon dioxide could be used as an anaesthetic, but was never recognised for his work…

Anaesthesia and surgical pain relief — the ideal general anaesthetic agent

The aim of this article is to describe the properties of the ideal anaesthetic agent, review how close today’s anaesthetic agents are to the ideal and look at the future for anaesthetic agents.…