The purpose of this review is to highlight the importance of making informed choices of anesthetics and evaluating the impact of depth of anesthesia, hemodynamic status and other factors capable of interfering with signal capture during intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring (IONM). Over the last decades, neuromonitoring has advanced considerably, allowing for insights into neurological function during anesthesia and making it possible to assess intraoperative consciousness and neural integrity in real time. IONM is indicated in surgeries posing risk to targeted neural tissues and adjacent structures. The technique helps correlate surgical maneuvers with neurophysiological changes at high levels of sensitivity and specificity and can identify risk situations early enough to prevent postoperative neurological deficits. Experience with IONM, the use of an adequate IONM modality, and knowledge of the effect of anesthetic techniques and agents on neurophysiological parameters are fundamental for reliable measurements. The current gold standard in IONM is total intravenous anesthesia without neuromuscular block.

Purpose: Ketamine is a N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist with strong analgesic properties. Its addition to the treatment of neuropathic pain may reduce pain intensity and improve overall quality of life. A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials was performed to investigate the addition of ketamine to the treatment of patients with neuropathic pain. Patients and Methods: GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) approach was used to rate the overall certainty of the evidence for each outcome. Eighteen (18) randomized controlled trials including 706 participants were included for further analysis. Results: Ketamine addition to standard treatment of neuropathic pain (NP) resulted in a statistically significant reduction of pain intensity at one week after the end of treatment with ketamine (MD − 2.14, 95% CI − 2.65 to − 1.63; p< 0.00001) and after 30 days after the end of treatment with ketamine (MD − 1.68, 95% CI − 2.25 to − 1.12; p< 0.00001) and a statistically significant increase in discomfort (RR 4.06; 95% CI 1.18 to 13.95; p=0.03), and psychedelic effects (RR 4.94; 95% CI 2.76 to 8.84; p< 0.00001). Conclusion: There is a statistically significant pain reduction by adding ketamine to the treatment of chronic NP when compared to the standard treatment. However, such pain reduction comes at the expense of adverse outcomes, especially psychedelic effects related to the administration of ketamine. However, the overall quality of certainty of evidence is low due to the clinical heterogeneity among the intervention characteristics of the trials analyzed (different administration routes, dosing regimen, therapy durations, different clinical characteristics of the population investigated). Future large multi-centered trials are necessary to confirm or not the results of the present review.

Pacientes críticos invariavelmente estão ansiosos,agitados, confusos, desconfortáveis e/oucom dor. Neste contexto, analgésicos e sedativossão amplamente utilizados nas unidades deterapia intensiva (UTIs). Algumas vezes, emcasos mais específicos, o bloqueio neuromusculartambém é utilizado. A administração deagentes sedativos, analgésicos e bloqueadoresneuromusculares na UTI tem aspectos própriose, em muitos casos, seu uso se diferencia daqueleencontrado no ambiente cirúrgico. Na UTI, emdecorrência do pior estado clínico dos pacientese do prolongado tempo de tratamento necessário,alcançar adequada (mas não excessiva) sedação é um processo complexo. Analgésicose sedativos empregados no âmbito das UTIs sãoextremamente potentes e as necessidades e ometabolismo destas drogas em pacientes críticossão, muitas vezes, imprevisíveis. Embora osmédicos intensivistas saibam que o tratamentocom sedativos e analgésicos pode influenciar naevolução do quadro clínico de seus pacientes,ainda existem falhas no que concerne ao reconhecimentoe controle da dor e do estresse. Osmédicos devem ter consciência dos efeitos decada droga e devem empregar estratégias quemaximizem benefícios enquanto minimizamos riscos. Tanto o excesso de sedação quanto asedação insuficiente são danosos. Neste campo,importantes avanços têm sido alcançados atravésda titulação de medicações guiada por metas,evitando assim o excesso ou a insuficiência de efeitos. Visando a melhoria dos cuidados prestadosaos pacientes críticos, são apresentadosconceitos fundamentais sobre analgesia, sedaçãoe bloqueio neuromuscular na unidade de terapiaintensiva. O conceito de sedação paliativa, como intuito de reduzir a consciência, oferecer confortoe aliviar a angústia do paciente ou outros sintomas intoleráveis e/ou refratários, também é apresentado e discutido.Revista HUPE, Rio de Janeiro, 2013;12(3):102-109doi:10.12957/rhupe.2013.7537

Introduction: This systematic review aims to summarize the existing evidence relating to preoperative anemia and clinical outcomes in peripheral vascular surgery patients. Methods: The following databases were searched—PubMed, COCHRANE, LILACS, and Science Research—from 1 January 2010 up to 8 May 2020, with the last search performed on 1 January 2021. An additional manual search for potential primary studies was conducted on major journals (e.g., Anesthesiology, the British Journal of Anesthesia and the European Journal of Anaesthesiology) and reference lists of included studies. Google Scholar was also checked for additional eligible studies. Reviewers independently screened potentially eligible articles and extracted data from included studies on populations, interventions, comparisons, and outcomes. This review was registered at PROSPERO as CRD 180954. Results: In total, 6 observational studies with a combined total of 87,327 participants were analyzed. Data collected in this review suggest that preoperative anemia, especially when hemoglobin is <10 g/dL, is associated with an increased risk of red blood cell transfusions (OR: 7.5; 95% CI 6.3–8.9, p < 0.0001), limb amputation (OR: 5.2; 95% CI 3.1–8.6, p < 0.0001), and death (p < 0.0031). Conclusions: These data suggest an association between preoperative anemia, blood transfusion requirements, and other adverse clinical outcomes among patients subjected to peripheral vascular interventions. However, further investigations, particularly randomized controlled trials, are warranted to better understand the association between preoperative anemia and patients’ prognosis.

The efficacy of the Hypotension Prediction Index (HPI) for reducing Intraoperative Hypotension (IOH) among patients undergoing non-cardiac surgeries remains unclear. We aimed to perform a systematic review, meta-analysis, and trial sequential analysis to determine whether the HPI is effective for adult patients undergoing non-cardiac surgeries. This study was prospectively registered in the PROSPERO database (CRD42024571931). PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane were systematically searched for Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) comparing HPI-guided therapy with standard care in non-cardiac surgeries. We computed Mean Difference (MD) and Risk Ratios (RR) for continuous and binary outcomes, respectively, with 95 % Confidence Intervals (95 % CI). Statistical analyses were performed using R Software, version 4.2.3. We included 11 RCTs, comprising a total of 789 patients, of whom 395 (50.1 %) received HPI-guided management. HPI significantly reduced the Time-Weighted Average (TWA) of Mean Arterial Pressure (MAP) < 65 mmHg (MD = -0.23 mmHg.min^-1; 95 % CI -0.35 to -0.10; p < 0.01) and the Area Under the Curve (AUC) of MAP < 65 mmHg (MD = -97.2 mmHg.min^-1; 95 % CI -143.4 to -50.98; p < 0.01). HPI also decreased the duration of MAP < 65 mmHg (MD = -16.22 min; 95 % CI -25.87 to -6.57; p < 0.01) and the number of hypotensive episodes per patient (MD = -3.38; 95 % CI -5.38 to -1.37; p < 0.01). No significant differences were observed in the number of hypotensive events, phenylephrine use, or AKI incidence (p > 0.05). In adult patients undergoing non-cardiac surgeries, HPI use was associated with a reduction in the duration and severity of IOH, with no significant difference for adverse events. Limitations include significant heterogeneity across studies, differences in HPI implementation, and lack of long-term outcome data.