Thoracic paravertebral block (ThPVB) combined with general anaesthesia is used in thoracic and general surgery. It provides effective analgesia, reduces surgical stress response and the incidence of chronic postoperative pain. To assess the efficacy of ThPVB in reducing opioid requirements and decreasing the intensity of pain after renal surgery. A randomised, open label study. A single university hospital. Study conducted from August 2013 to February 2014. In total, 68 patients scheduled for elective renal surgery (open nephrectomy or open nephron-sparing surgery). Preoperative ThPVB with 0.5% bupivacaine combined with general anaesthesia, followed by postoperative oxycodone combined with nonopioid analgesics as rescue drugs. Follow-up period: 48 h. Total dose of postoperative oxycodone required, pain intensity, occurrence of opioid related adverse events, ThPVB-related adverse events and patient satisfaction. A total of 68 patients were randomised into two groups and, of these, 10 were subsequently excluded from analysis. Patients in group paravertebral block (PVB; n = 27) had general anaesthesia and ThPVB, and those in group general (anaesthesia) (GEN) (n = 31) formed a control group receiving general anaesthesia only. Compared with patients in group GEN, patients who received ThPVB required 39% less i.v. oxycodone over the first 48 h and had less pain at rest (P < 0.01) throughout the first 24 h. Group PVB patients also experienced fewer opioid-related adverse events and were less sedated during the first 12 postoperative hours. Patients in the PVB group had higher satisfaction scores at 48 h compared with the control group. There were no serious adverse events. In our study, preoperative ThPVB was an effective part of a multimodal analgesia regimen for reducing opioid consumption and pain intensity. Methods and drugs used in both groups were well tolerated with no serious adverse events. Compared with the control group, patients in the ThPVB group reported increased satisfaction. Clinical Trials NCT02840526.

Predicting difficult intubation is of high clinical interest. 237 patients aged ≥18 years were included in the study. Preoperative airway evaluation included: Mallampati test, thyromental distance, sternomental distance and thyromental height test. During direct laryngoscopy Cormack & Lehane classification was graded. We calculated the ROC AUC, sensitivity and specificity for thyromental height test as a primary end point of our study. Only thyromental height test and Cormack-Lehane scale proved significant on occurrence of difficult intubation. The optimal sensitivity and specificity values of thyromental height test were met with a cut off value of 50 mm. With 1 mm increase in thyromental height test, risk of difficult intubation decreased by 7%. Thyromental height test is a simple, easy to perform and non-invasive test to predict difficult intubation in patients scheduled for elective double lumen tube intubation during thoracic surgical procedures. With 1 mm above 50 mm increase in thyromental height test the risk of difficult intubation decreased by 7%. Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT02988336.

Background : Ipsilateral shoulder pain (ISP) is a common complication of mixed etiology after thoracic surgery (its prevalence is estimated in the literature at between 42% and 97%). It is severe and resistant to treatment (patients complain of pain despite effective epidural analgesia at the...

Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a tool to monitor regional ventilation distribution in patient’s lungs under general anesthesia. The objective of this study was to assess the regional ventilation distribution using different driving pressures (DP) during high frequency jet ventilation (HFJV). Prospective, observational, cross-over study. Patients undergoing rigid bronchoscopy were ventilated HFJV with DP 1.5 and 2.5 atm. Hemodynamic and ventilation parameters, as well as ventilation in different regions of the lungs in percentage of total ventilation, assessed by EIT, were recorded. Thirty-six patients scheduled for elective rigid bronchoscopy. The final analysis included thirty patients. There was no significant difference in systolic, diastolic and mean arterial blood pressure, heart rate, and peripheral saturation between the two groups. Peak inspiratory pressure, mean inspiratory pressure, tidal volume, and minute volume significantly increased in the second, compared to the first intervention group. Furthermore, there were no statistically significant differences between each time profiles in all ROI regions in EIT. In our study intraoperative EIT was an effective method of functional monitoring of the lungs during HFJV for rigid bronchoscopy procedure. Lower driving pressure was as effective in providing sufficient ventilation distribution through the lungs as the higher driving pressure but characterized by lower airway pressure. The study was registered on ClinicalTrials.gov under no. NCT02997072 .

Assessing pain in non-communicative patients remains challenging in anaesthesia and intensive care. When self-report is unavailable, clinicians infer nociception from behaviour and physiology. Behavioural scales such as the Behavioral Pain Scale and the Critical-Care Pain Observation Tool are simple and reproducible, supporting consistent practice; however, performance declines with deep sedation, neuromuscular blockade, or severe neurological injury. Where behavioural cues are absent or unreliable, physiological and neurophysiological signals provide partial information. Autonomic indicators, including heart rate variability, the Surgical Pleth Index, pupillometry, and skin conductance, capture sympathetic responses to noxious stimuli rather than perceived pain and are sensitive to drugs, haemodynamic instability, shivering, and agitation. Electroencephalography and functional near-infrared spectroscopy identify cortical responses to nociceptive input, yet clinically useful thresholds remain context dependent, and most applications are research-based. Emerging machine-learning systems that integrate behaviour and physiology show promise, but models validated in the operating room are not automatically applicable in the intensive care unit and require new external validation with potential recalibration. Evidence is generally stronger intraoperatively than in intensive care, and paediatric data are limited. No instrument directly measures subjective pain when self-report is absent. Available tools index nociception through behavioural and physiological correlates and must be interpreted within the clinical context.

Drug allergies, asthma, and obesity are more common in modern societies, and patients with these problems are often a challenge for anesthetists. Different techniques of regional anesthesia can be beneficial particularly for this group of patients. We present a patient who suffered from all of the above-mentioned conditions and successfully underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy under thoracic combined spinal-epidural anesthesia. It is still not a popular practice, and we would like to show another indication for using it.