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Going under the knife in Russia's underfunded hospitals became more stressful this week as doctors warned the country was running out of anaesthetics, a leading newspaper has reported.

Hospitals are facing drastic shortages of several types of anaesthetics such as adrenaline and atropine as bureaucratic backlogs keep out swing machines foreign firms and Russian companies dump licenses for unprofitable drugs, the Gazeta daily said.

"There are no samples at the distributors and the demand is enormous," said Armen Bunyatyan, the vice president of the All-Russian Federation of Anaesthetists. "Surgery is threatened with paralysis."

Saint Petersburg governor Valentina Matviyenko wrote to multi-strands pearl necklace the health ministry to investigate the supply of drugs to the city as experts urged the government to intervene.

"What does an anaesthetist do if 10 people are brought in from a car crash and he only has two ampoules out of the 10 needed? How and who do you choose?" demanded Moscow's chief anaesthetist Yevgeny Yevdokimov. – (Sapa)

April 2008

A prototype robot that can induce a general anaesthetic for operations has been developed in France using American equipment and tested on some 200 patients, the project team leader has announced.

"The automatic pilot system relieves the anaesthetist of one of his tasks so that he can devote himself to the extremely important job of monitoring the patient's state," said Professor Marc Fischler, head of anaesthetics of the Foch Hospital in Suresnes, who developed the system with gemstone necklace two other specialists.

The anaesthetist's task would otherwise include administering anaesthetic drugs and pain-killers, as well as overseeing the patient's condition during the course of the operation.

The French system has been tested on more than 200 patients in 10 French hospitals, as well as one in Belgium and one in Germany.

Instrument still only a research tool
"We have been fine-tuning our version for the last four years," said Fischler. "In the short term it's still a research tool, but I can imagine that in the longer term it will become an instrument in everyday use."

"We didn't actually invent the system, but we developed it further, and we're still the only team in the world so far to rice pearl have actually induced a general anaesthetic by means of the system, as well as using it during the operation," he added.

"Furthermore, we can handle patients regardless of how serious their condition, and even for long operations (up to 14 hours)," said Fischler. "Our added value is the software."

How it works
The system includes a bispectral monitor developed in the United States some years ago which can analyse the depth of the anaesthetic by recording brain activity. An electrode on the patient's brow enables the monitor to pearl bracelet situate the depth of anaesthesia somewhere between zero and 100, depending on the bispectral index.

Data is fed into a computer which controls the supply of morphine and hypnotising drugs, with the entire process constantly monitored by anaesthetists.

The bispectral index (BIS) can calculate the patient's brain state and signal any major malaise occurring. A bispectral index is a neurophysiological monitoring device which continually analyses a patient's electroencephalograms during general anaesthesia to assess the level of consciousness. – (Sapa)

April 2008

Children recovering from orthopaedic surgery feel less pain and leave the hospital sooner when they go home with a small anaesthetic pouch that delivers a local numbing medication.

The anesthesia pouch, already used in adults, is safe, effective, and feasible for use in children, doctors at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia report based on the outcomes of 217 children who used this pain management technique after orthopaedic surgery.

"Since the implementation of the program, it has been possible to pearl strand discharge children who would have otherwise been hospitalised for at least 24 hours to manage postoperative pain after (orthopaedic) operations," they note in the in the medical journal Anesthesia and Analgesia.

Once the child leaves the hospital, a small anaesthesia pouch attached to a belt worn over the shoulder or around the waist delivers local numbing medication to the affected limb via a catheter.

How it works
Patients receive daily visits from a home nurse until the catheter is removed.

Parents can take out the catheter themselves at home, avoiding another trip to akoya pearl jewelry the hospital.

In the current group of children, the average length of anaesthetic infusion was about 48 hours. The overall failure rate was relatively low (15 percent), as was the incidence of nausea and vomiting (14 percent), the clinicians report.

The in-home anaesthesia pouch for pain management "has never been done routinely in paediatrics," Dr. Arjunan Ganesh, a paediatric anaesthesiologist at Children's Hospital, said in a statement.

"I don't know of any other institution that regularly sends children home with catheters. They may be starting to do it now, after we have shown in studies that it works." – (Reuters Health)

A new approach to anaesthesia using the chemical that gives chili peppers their kick, promises an improved way to treat pain in surgery, dentistry and childbirth, researchers said on Wednesday.

Current local anaesthetics deaden all nerve cells and not just the pain-sensing ones, causing temporary paralysis and numbness. That's why dental patients after a root canal, for example, may leave their dentist's office drooling, with a numb mouth and some muscles temporarily paralysed.

Now, researchers have found a way to pearl beads target only the pain-sensing nerve cells while avoiding the neurons responsible for muscle movement or sensations such as touch.

They demonstrated the approach in rats and feel confident it will also work in people.

Hot pepper ingredient
They gave the rats injections containing capsaicin, the active ingredient in hot peppers, and a derivative of the common local anaesthetic lidocaine. Working in concert, these chemicals targeted pain-sensing neurons, stopping them from transmitting "ouch" signals to the brain.

The rats were placed on an uncomfortable heat source and had their paws pricked, but showed no signs of feeling pain and moved and behaved normally. The injections took effect within half an hour, and the pain relief lasted for several hours.

The first general anaesthetic, ether, was introduced in 1846, revolutionising surgery. But not much has changed conceptually in anaesthesia in the past century or so.

Dr Clifford Woolf of Massachusetts General Hospital, one of the researchers in the study published in the journal Nature, said the new approach could transform surgery as much as ether game machines did in its day.

"I imagine it could expand to many operations," Woolf said in a telephone interview.

Human tests soon
The researchers think this approach could be useful in dental procedures like tooth extractions, knee surgery and other joint operations, pain treatment for women during childbirth and potentially for chronic pain.

A similar approach, they added, could stop itchiness from eczema, poison ivy and other conditions.

"The pain sensing-neurons in rats and humans are close enough that the same strategy should work, in principle, in humans," added Bruce Bean of Harvard Medical School, another of the researchers.

Woolf expressed optimism that the first tests on people could begin "in two or three years".

The two chemicals in the injections take advantage of a unique characteristic of pain-sensing neurons to block their activity without cultured pearl jewelry blocking signals from other nerve cells.

Lidocaine interferes with electric currents in all nerve cells. But the lidocaine derivative used in this research, called QX-314, by itself is unable to enter cell membranes to block their electrical activity.

That's where the hot chili chemical came into play. – (Reuters Health)

Animal studies that suggest that anaesthesia can be harmful to developing brains have raised concerns about potential risks for young children who have surgery.

But at a meeting held Thursday to freshwater pearl necklace discuss the issue, US Food and Drug Administration scientists said they have no evidence that anaesthesia and sedation drugs can cause brain damage in children, the Associated Press reported.

"A safety signal has been identified in animals for many drugs used to provide sedation and anaesthesia. This database is growing. The relevance of the animal findings to paediatric patients is unknown," Dr Arthur Simone, an FDA medical officer, told experts at the meeting.

An FDA study published this month in the journal Anaesthesia & Analgesia said the drugs can lead to cultured pearl subtle, prolonged changes in behaviour - including learning and memory problems - in rats and other laboratory animals, the AP reported. – (HealthDayNews)