Acute exacerbations of asthma occurring frequently time to check your techniques

Background: Asthmatics form a predominant section of patients in OPD. If poorly controlled the frequency of attacks requiring an emergency department visit adds to the burden. It was noticed that the patients who were on inhalational therapy had poor control despite the absence of other factors which could lead to exacerbations. Hence author evaluated the inhalational techniques.Methods: A prospective study undertaken in the department of medicine in tertiary care hospital in Dakshina Kannada District, Karnataka enlisting 25 patients admitted with acute exacerbation of bronchial asthma. The patients were assessed for their symptoms, signs and recurrent attacks along with their cough severity index and inhaler scores and the observations were tabulated.Results: Of the twenty-five, 15 were on inhalation therapy with various modes of deliveries. There were 15 males and 10 females from ages 20 to 50years. The number of attacks of asthma was higher in those not on inhalation therapies than those using inhalation therapies. Also, the level/severity of cough, measured as Cough Severity Index, was assessed among the two groups. Those on inhalation therapy had a lower grade of cough than those not on therapy . Mean AEC was 94 among those on inhalation therapy and 209 among those not on therapy. Inhalational score was calculated for each patient. There is a strong negative correlation of -0.709 between inhalation score and recurrent attacks, which is statistically significant (p=0.003). Lower inhalation scores were associated with recurrent attacks.Conclusions: Recurrent exacerbations in an asthmatic patient on inhalation therapy are due to improper inhalational technique. It was suggested that it is wise to spend time with the patients in authors OPD set up and teach them the correct techniques of using inhalational therapy hence reducing frequency of attacks and cost of health care in such patients.

The Use of Sevoflurane in a 2:1 Mixture of Nitrous Oxide and Oxygen for Rapid Mask Induction of Anaesthesia in the Cat

An inhalational technique for rapid induction of anaesthesia in unsedated cats using sevoflurane and nitrous oxide is described. Using a pliable, tight-fitting, face mask, sevoflurane (7.5–8%) was delivered from an out-of-circuit precision vaporiser connected to a coaxial non-rebreathing system using a fresh gas flow of 1 l oxygen and 2 l nitrous oxide per min. Cats were restrained with gentle but firm pressure applied by scruffing the dorsal cervical skin until the righting reflex was lost and the patient could be positioned in lateral recumbency. Typically, cats could be positioned on their side in a light plane of anaesthesia within 1 min of applying the mask, at which time the sevoflurane concentration was reduced to 5% or less. A similar protocol, using a lower initial concentration of sevoflurane, is recommended for old or debilitated patients. Maintenance of light sevoflurane (2–4%) anaesthesia by mask permitted minor interventions to be performed readily, including blood collection, intravenous chemotherapy, abdominal palpation, radiography and ultrasonography. More painful procedures, such as bone marrow aspiration, required a deeper plane of anaesthesia. Cats were sufficiently deep to be intubated, if this was required, about 3 min after commencing the induction. Recovery from sevoflurane/nitrous oxide anaesthesia was smooth and rapid, with most cats being able to right within 5 min of discontinuing the agents. This protocol for rapid inhalational induction and recovery is particularly suited to feline practice, where rendering an uncooperative patient unconscious greatly facilitates the completion of many minor diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, especially when these must be performed on successive days or when peripheral vascular access is limited. For longer procedures, isoflurane may be substituted for sevoflurane for maintenance of anaesthesia in order to minimise cost.

The Elimination of Pollution by a Non Inhalational Technique

A method is described whereby major surgery can be accomplished without inhalational anaesthetic agents, thus completely eliminating operating room pollution. The method is based on the balanced use of three intravenous agents — morphine, alcuronium and gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB). In the dose chosen for GHB, reliable unconsciousness can be produced for surgery of any length, and using physostigmine as an antidote, patients can be wakened within ten minutes. The advantages are convenience, simplicity of equipment, low cost, absence of pollution and good patient acceptance. The disadvantages are a certain incidence of hypertension and in this series, a small failure rate with the antidote.