THE anesthesia literature is full of information and recommendations for safely administering general anesthesia to patients with various myotonic, neuromuscular, and vocal cord disorders; however, little is published on speech disorders and how these often vocal cord– related afflictions can influence anesthetic management. This report discusses an incident of laryngospasm in a patient with sp...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effects of a single pre-operative dose of dexamethasone with the frequency of postoperative vomiting and severity of throat pain in children undergoing electrocautery tonsillectomy under standard general anaesthesia. STUDY DESIGN Randomised controlled trial. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY ENT Department, Combined Military Hospital, Kharian, from January to December 20...

BACKGROUND Cardiac surgery is frequently associated with prolonged endotracheal intubation. Because oral feeding is an important component of patient recovery after high-risk surgery, we sought to examine the contribution of dysphagia in the recuperation process after prolonged endotracheal intubation. METHODS All 254 adult patients who survived cardiac surgery between 2001 and 2004 at the To...

Methods of noninvasive pressure support ventilation (NIPSV) are not always easy to apply in patients with acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The assistance time spent by nurses in relation to ventilatory time was prospectively studied, when NIPSV was used, in a sequential mode, in COPD patients with either acute exacerbations (58 patients, group I) or postextub...

OBJECTIVES Sedation-related adverse events in critically ill pediatric patients lack reproducible operational definitions and reference standards. Understanding these adverse events is essential to improving the quality of patient care and for developing prevention strategies in critically ill children. The purpose of this study was to test operational definitions and estimate the rate and site...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Heated, humidified high-flow nasal cannula (HHHFNC) is commonly used as a noninvasive mode of respiratory support in the NICU. The safety and efficacy of HHHFNC have not been compared with other modes of noninvasive support in large randomized trials. The objective was to assess the efficacy and safety of HHHFNC compared with nasal continuous positive airway pressure (...