Neurology/sedation, Sedation and anaesthesia.

Hepatic integrity was well retained with the administration of SMOFlipid whereas in patients receiving a lipid emulsion based on olive and soybean oil liver enzymes were elevated indicating a lower liver tolerability.

SummaryPostanaesthetic shivering affects up to 70% of patients after general anaesthesia, and may be very distressing. Various drugs have been used to treat or prevent postanaesthetic shivering, but the ideal one has not yet been found. Sixty patients undergoing elective abdominal or orthopaedic surgery under general anaesthesia were included in a randomised, double-blind study. Patients received clonidine (3 mg.kg À1 ), nefopam (0.15 mg.kg À1 ) or saline 0.9% as a placebo at the end of surgery, prior to extubation. Nefopam and clonidine significantly reduced the incidence and severity of shivering in comparison with the placebo. The recovery time, between the end of anaesthesia and extubation, was significantly longer in the clonidine-treated patients [13.6 (5.2) min] than in either the nefopam [9.6 (2.8) min] or the placebo [10.0 (5.4) min] groups. Mean arterial blood pressure and heart rate were significantly lower in the clonidine group compared with both other groups. Our results suggest that nefopam and clonidine are effective in the prevention of postanaesthetic shivering. However, following clonidine administration the recovery time was prolonged and hypotension was significantly greater than after nefopam.

Our results demonstrate a close correlation and clinically acceptable agreement and precision between CO measurements obtained with impedance cardiography using a new algorithm to calculate CO from variations in TEB, and those obtained with the clinical standard of care, pulmonary artery thermodilution, in hemodynamically stable and unstable patients after cardiac surgery.

Alterations of the hemostatic network were seen in all three groups of critically ill patients. Hemostasis normalized in the neurosurgery patients and posttraumatic hypercoagulability recovered within the study period. By contrast, monitoring of molecular markers of the coagulation process demonstrated abnormal hemostasis in the sepsis patients during the entire study period indicating ongoing coagulation disorders and abnormalities in fibrinolysis in these patients.