The importance of perioperative optimisation to facilitate safe regional anaesthesia and their improved outcomes in fracture neck of femur patients

Background: Hip fractures are common presentations to orthopaedic departments, and their surgical management often results in blood transfusions. Compared with general anaesthesia, regional anaesthesia reduces the need for transfusions and mortality in the wider surgical population. Aims: In hip fracture patients, our primary outcome measure was to examine any relationship between anaesthetic modality and transfusion rates. The secondary outcome measure was to assess the relationship between anaesthetic modality and one-year mortality. Methods: A retrospective cohort study of 280 patients was carried out in 2017 and 2018. Data were collected from patient records, local transfusion laboratory and the national hip fracture database. Results: A total of 59.6% had regional and 40.4% general anaesthesia. Regional anaesthesia patients were younger with fewer comorbidities (p < .05). About 19.8% regional and 34.5% general anaesthesia patients received transfusions (odds ratio (OR) = 0.47, p < .05); 13.6% were taking anticoagulants and were less likely to receive a regional anaesthetic (31.6% versus 64%, OR = 0.26, p < .05). One-year mortality was 27% for regional and 37% for general anaesthetic patients (OR = 0.64, p = .09). Conclusion: Regional anaesthesia halved the risk of blood transfusion. Anticoagulated patients were 74% less likely to receive regional anaesthetics, but had no additional transfusion risk. With optimisation, a larger proportion of patients could have regional anaesthesia.

Predicting the Difficulty Score of Spinal Anaesthesia

Background: Spinal anaesthesia is the commonest regional anaesthesia conducted for several surgical procedures. Objectives: This study aims to predict the difficulty score of spinal anaesthesia to scale back the complications and ultimately improve anaesthesia quality. Materials and Methods: Patients undergoing various surgeries involving spinal anaesthesia were taken in this study and several parameters like demographic details, body mass index, spinous process condition were recorded pre operatively to see how they influenced the difficulty of performing spinal anesthesia on them. Results: Out of the 101 patients enrolled in this study, 53 underwent an easy SA by the first attempt in the first space. It was moderate in 36 and difficult in 12 patients. Conclusion: Considering the examination of patients with respect to BMI, lumbar spinous process status and deformities, radiological signs of lumbar vertebrae can be helpful in predicting how difficult the SA procedure is going to be.

Can Acute Postoperative Pain Management After Tumour Resection Surgery Modulate Risk of Later Recurrence or Metastasis?

BackgroundCancer is a leading cause of mortality worldwide, but death is rarely from the primary tumour: Rather it is multi-organ dysfunction from metastatic disease that is responsible for up to 90% of cancer-related deaths. Surgical resection of the primary tumour is indicated in 70% of cases. The perioperative stress response, tissue hypoxia at the site of surgery, and acute pain contribute to immunosuppression and neo-angiogenesis, potentially promoting tumour survival, proliferation, and metastasis. Poorly controlled acute postoperative pain decreases Natural Killer (NK) immune cell activity, which could potentially facilitate circulating tumour cells from evading immune detection. This consequently promotes tumour growth and distal metastasis.MethodsWe conducted a comprehensive literature search for links between acute pain and cancer outcomes using multiple online databases. Relevant articles from January 1st, 2010 to September 1st, 2021 were analysed and appraised on whether postoperative pain control can modulate the risk of recurrence, metastasis, and overall cancer survival.ResultsAlthough experimental and retrospective clinical data suggest a plausible role for regional anaesthesia in cancer outcome modulation, this has not been supported by the single, largest prospective trial to date concerning breast cancer. While there are mixed results on anaesthesiology drug-related interventions, the most plausible data relates to total intravenous anaesthesia with propofol, and to systemic administration of lidocaine.ConclusionThe hypothesis that anaesthetic and analgesic technique during cancer surgery could influence risk of subsequent recurrence or metastasis has been prevalent for &gt;15 years. The first, large-scale definitive trial among women with breast cancer found robust equivalent findings between volatile anaesthesia with opioid analgesia and regional anaesthesia. Therefore, while regional anaesthesia during tumour resection does not seem to have any effect on cancer outcomes, it remains plausible that other anaesthetic techniques (e.g. total intravenous anaesthesia and systemic lidocaine infusion) might influence oncologic outcome in other major tumour resection surgery (e.g. colorectal and lung). Therefore, another large trial is needed to definitively answer these specific research questions. Until such evidence is available, perioperative analgesia for cancer surgery of curative intent should be based on patient co-morbidity and non-cancer endpoints, such as optimising analgesia and minimising postoperative complications.

Pregnancy and COVID-19

Pregnancy is a physiological state that alters the body’s response to infections. COVID-19 has been found to cause severe disease in pregnancy with morbidity and mortality that is higher than in non-pregnant adults. There is risk of transmission of SARS-CoV2 infection to fetus during ante-natal period, intra-partum and post-delivery from an infected mother. It is necessary to provide an un-interrupted ante-natal care and delivery services to pregnant women during the pandemic. Tele-consultation is important modality to reduce the physical exposure of pregnant women to the hospital environment and should be utilised. Screening, isolation, testing and treatment for SARS-CoV2 infection in pregnant women should follow the local guidelines and remain essentially the same as in non-pregnant adults. Admission, if required, should be in a facility that can provide obstetric maternal and fetal monitoring in addition to care for COVID-19 illness. Use of nitrous oxide and inhalational oxygen for fetal indication should be avoided during labor. Second stage of labor is considered an aerosol generating procedure and should be managed with adequate precautions. Mode of delivery should be as per obstetric indications. Regional anaesthesia should be preferred during caesarean. COVID-19 is not a contra-indication to breast feeding. For antenatal women, COVID-19 vaccination can be considered after shared decision making.

Anaesthetic choice for hip or knee arthroplasty in New Zealand: Risk of postoperative death and variations in use

Anaesthetic choice for large joint surgery can impact postoperative outcomes, including mortality. The extent to which the impact of anaesthetic choice on postoperative mortality varies within patient populations and the extent to which anaesthetic choice is changing over time remain under-explored both internationally and in the diverse New Zealand context. In a national study of 199,211 hip and knee replacement procedures conducted between 2005 and 2017, we compared postoperative mortality among those receiving general, regional or general plus regional anaesthesia. Focusing on unilateral ( n=86,467) and partial ( n=13,889) hip replacements, we assessed whether some groups within the population are more likely to receive general, regional or general plus regional anaesthesia than others, and whether mortality risk varies depending on anaesthetic choice. We also examined temporal changes in anaesthetic choice over time. Those receiving regional alone or general plus regional for unilateral hip replacement appeared at increased risk of 30-day mortality compared to general anaesthesia alone, even after adjusting for differences in terms of age, ethnicity, deprivation, rurality, comorbidity, American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status score and admission type (e.g. general plus regional: adjusted hazard ratio (adj. HR)=1.94, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 1.32 to 2.84). By contrast, we observed lower 30-day mortality among those receiving regional anaesthesia alone compared to general alone for partial hip replacement (adj. HR=0.86, 95% CI 0.75 to 0.97). The latter observation contrasts with declining temporal trends in the use of regional anaesthesia alone for partial hip replacement procedures. However, we recognise that postoperative mortality is one perioperative factor that drives anaesthetic choice.