BackgroundPreoperative anxiety and stress are undoubtedly a difficult experience in patients undergoing elective surgery. These unpleasant sensations depend on several factors. The objective of this study was to evaluate the preoperative anxiety levels in a sample of Turkish population, as well as the underlying causes using the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI anxiety) scale.MethodsThe study was conducted according to the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the local ethical committee. All participants gave written informed consent upon having received detailed information on the study. Upon entry in the study, state and trait anxiety questionnaires were completed by 186 patients scheduled for elective surgery. The influencing factors in regard to age, sex, educational status and others were also reported.ResultsThere was a statistically significant positive correlation between state and trait anxiety scores in this Turkish population. While the most important predictive factors that affected state-STAI scores were age, sex and duration of sleep the night before surgery; educational status and age were the best predictors for determining the variation in trait-STAI scores.ConclusionThe factors affecting anxiety levels in different populations might vary among different countries. Interestingly, in this sample of Turkish population, the trait anxiety levels were found to be higher from state-anxiety levels, especially in women and less educated people. Thus, doubts about operation and anesthesia are overlooked. This could be attributed to the low to intermediate life standards of people admitted to our hospital.

Intraarticular administration of piroxicam along with bupivacaine improves postoperative analgesia in synovial inflammation before surgery.

We investigated the data of patients retrospectively in regards to anesthetic issues. Between July 2011 and January 2014, 151 TAVI procedures were performed via a transaxillary (n = 3) or transfemoral (n = 148) approach at our institution.Routinely, following the evaluation of the individual patient on the basis of international recommendations by the cardiologist, cardiac surgeon, and anesthesiologist, a decision for not only high risk of conventional surgery but also the suitability of TAVI is made in our clinics (8-12). Preoperatively, in addition to clinical evaluation, all patients are screened by transthoracic echocardiography (TTE), coronary angiography, iliofemoral contrast angiography, and computed tomography. Thus, the anesthesiologist determines the anesthetic management to be offered.For this report, the patients were followed up in the aspect of clinical data, transthoracic echocardiographic results, parameters related to the procedure, and intensive care unit and hospital stay lengths until hospital discharge. Afterwards, information on survival in the following 30 days was obtained by telephoning the patient. We Background/aim: Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has emerged as a new therapy in aortic stenosis patients with high operative risk. Advances in experiences have shifted the choice of anesthesia from general to local anesthesia and sedation for these patients. We compared our anesthetic experiences in our institute in a period of 2.5 years. Materials and methods:A total of 151 (86 females, 65 males, mean age 76 years) symptomatic aortic stenosis patients undergoing transfemoral TAVI under general anesthesia (GA) (n = 79) and local anesthesia and sedation (LAS) (n = 72) were evaluated retrospectively in regards to anesthetic issues. Results:The mean European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation (EuroSCORE) values of patients in the GA and LAS groups were 17 and 12, respectively. The anesthesia duration was significantly shorter in the LAS group (P < 0.001) and 16.7% of the patients in the LAS group were switched to general anesthesia. Length of stay in the intensive care unit was similar in the two groups.Conclusion: TAVI, applied in high-risk populations, has many challenges for anesthesiologists. With technological advances, it is possible to perform these procedures under sedation with variable advantages. Thus, future studies in regard to anesthesia are required for the success of the procedure and patient safety.

Background. Gabapentin, as a structural analogue of γ-aminobutyric acid, has been investigated to provide pain relief in the early postoperative period following various surgical interventions.

BackgroundIschemia–reperfusion (I/R) injury is a common cause of patient morbidity and mortality in the perioperative period. Patients undergoing long-lasting, abdominal, and urogenital surgeries with risk factors such as advanced age, peripheral artery disease, diabetes mellitus, renovascular disease, and congestive heart failure are candidates for acute kidney injury (AKI) due to impaired renal perfusion and decreased functional renal reserve. Pharmacological agents with multiple functions and anti-oxidative and anti-inflammation properties may be promising preventative strategies for AKI. Recently, dexmedetomidine (dex) has been postulated to have renoprotective effects.ObjectivesWe aimed to investigate the protective effects of an intravenous anesthetic remifentanil in renal I/R injury in the rat in comparison with dex.Materials and methodsA total of 30 Sprague Dawley adult rats were randomly assigned into five groups: the control group (group C, n=6), the sham group (group Sh, n=6, saline-infused rats without I/R injury), the saline group (group S, n=6, saline-infused rats with I/R injury), the remifentanil-treated group (group REM, n=6), and the dexmedetomidine-treated group (group DEX, n=6). The infusions (saline, remifentanil, and dex) were started after anesthesia induction and right nephrectomy and continued until the end of the surgical procedure. In I/R injury groups, the left renal artery and vein were occluded together by a clamp for 30 minutes and reperfusion lasted for 30 minutes. The rats were sacrificed after reperfusion, and the left kidney tissue was harvested. Blood samples were drawn from all animals to evaluate plasma neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) at the beginning, 15 minutes after ischemia, 15 minutes after reperfusion, and 6 hours after the surgical procedure (T0, T1, T2, and T3, respectively).ResultsThe plasma NGAL levels exhibited increase at T1, T2, and T3 compared to the levels at T0 in group S (P<0.05). In group REM, there was a significant increase in plasma NGAL levels at T3 in comparison to those at T0, T1, and T2. The plasma NGAL levels at T2 in group S were significantly higher than those at T2 in group DEX (P<0.05). The groups S and REM showed significantly higher plasma NGAL levels at T3 compared to those at T0 (P<0.05). Upon histological examination, there was no difference among the study groups when left kidneys were evaluated (P>0.05).ConclusionThe NGAL levels and histopathological findings reflected protection by dex against renal I/R injury. However, the same exact results could not be mentioned for remifentanil depending on our study results.