The number of elderly patients undergoing femoral head replacement surgeries is on the increase. These patients often suffer from comorbidity such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular complications, which limits the ability of medical teams to employ anesthesia. Thus, alternative methods are required. The aim of this study was to examine the advantage of laryngeal mask airway (LMA) in the absence of muscle relaxant in elderly patients undergoing femoral head replacement operations. Fifty patients (27 males and 23 females) undergoing femoral head replacements were selected for the study between March 2013 and May 2014. The mean value for the age in this group was 74.6±12.5 years. The patients were randomly distributed into two groups of 25. One group was designated as the treatment group and the second group as the control group. For the treatment group, LMA without muscle relaxant was used, and the control group received routine anesthesia. Variations in heart rate (HR), mean arterial pressure (MAP) and oxygen saturation (SPO2) in the two groups were monitored at different times. Clinical efficacy and muscle relaxation effects were also analyzed. For the treatment group, the HR, MAP and SPO2 measurements did not reveal any significant variation while these values in the control group demonstrated important dissimilarities. Time to recovery, time to extubation and incidence of throat pain in the treatment group were all markedly decreased as compared to those in control group. The operation time in the treatment group was not significantly different to that of control group. The satisfaction of the muscle relaxation effect in the treatment group was significantly higher than that in the control group while the incidence of adverse reactions was not considerably different. In conclusion, the use of LMA without using muscle relaxant in femoral head replacement surgeries performed on elderly patients showed to be effective and safe.

We aimed to investigate the indirect influence of exposure to nicotine during pregnancy on the learning and memory of adult offspring mice. Thirty pregnant C57 mice were randomly divided into either the control group (CON) or the nicotine group (NIC), with 15 mice each. The CON group was given access to drug-free water, and the NIC group was given 60 g/ml nicotine in drinking water. Sixteen adult mice were randomly selected from the 8 litters for Morris water maze test. The level of products of related factors in the hippocampus of mice in the NIC and the CON groups were compared using the 1H-MRS method. The escape latency time that the adult offspring mice in the NIC group took in the place navigation test was significantly longer than that of the CON group. In addition, the NIC group took longer time to arrive at the plate than the CON group (P<0.05). mRNA and protein levels of NR1 in the hippocampus of the NIC group was significantly higher than that in the CON group (P<0.05).α7nACh mRNA in the hippocampus of the NIC group was not significantly different from that of the CON group (P>0.05), while the expression levels of α7nACh protein in the hippocampus of the NIC group was significantly lower than that in the CON group (P<0.05). Detection of protein level of muscarinic receptors in the hippocampus of adult offspring mice in the NIC group showed that when compared to the CON group, the expression levels of M1, M3, M5 of the NIC group was not significantly different from that of the CON group (P>0.05). Therefore, exposure to nicotine during pregnancy can cause damage to the learning ability of adult offspring mice but do not significantly influence their working memory.