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Biomedical subjects

H Kehlet

Publications and source records attributed to H Kehlet.

At least 289 records · Page 16Linked to original sources
PubMed1989

Fatigue and cardiac and endocrine metabolic response to exercise after abdominal surgery.

Subjective feeling of fatigue was quantified before and 20 days after elective uncomplicated abdominal surgery in 16 otherwise-healthy patients and compared with changes in heart rate and various hormonal and substrate responses to a 10-minute bicycle exercise (65% of preoperative maximal work capacity) preoperatively and postoperatively. Postoperatively, fatigue increased (p less than 0.001) from 3.0 +/- 0.5 to 5.3 +/- 0.5 arbitrary units (mean +/- SEM). Heart rate, plasma catecholamines, and serum growth hormone, lactate, alanine, and glycerol values always increased, whereas serum insulin values decreased in response to exercise (p less than 0.01). During exercise, only heart rate (p less than 0.01) and lactate (p less than 0.05) values were higher postoperatively compared with preoperatively. Increase in fatigue postoperatively correlated significantly to increase in heart rate (p less than 0.01) and correlated positively, but not significantly, to increase in plasma levels of noradrenaline (p = 0.08), growth hormone (p = 0.09), and alanine (p = 0.08) during exercise, but not to increase in serum lactate values (p greater than 0.8). Thus, after uncomplicated surgery, there was increased fatigue and amplified metabolic and cardiovascular response to a given absolute work load. These findings are similar to those observed during detraining and suggest a therapeutic role of exercise in the treatment of postoperative fatigue.

Abdomen↗
PubMed1988

Unpredictability of regression of analgesia during the continuous postoperative extradural infusion of bupivacaine.

Twenty-four otherwise healthy patients scheduled for elective major abdominal surgery received general anaesthesia plus lumbar extradural analgesia. A loading dose of 0.5% plain bupivacaine was given to produce sensory analgesia (pin prick) from T4 to S5 and followed by a continuous infusion of 0.5% plain bupivacaine 8 ml h-1. Pain, scored on a 5-point scale, and sensory analgesia were assessed hourly for 16 h after skin incision. If sensory analgesia decreased by more than 5 segments from its preoperative level, or if the pain score reached 2 (moderate pain), the patients were removed from the study, and pain was treated otherwise. Only three patients maintained their initial levels of sensory analgesia and a pain score of less than 2. In the remaining patients sensory analgesia decreased at least 5 segments or pain score reached 2 between 4 and 16 h after skin incision. We found a weak correlation between increasing age and the duration of sensory analgesia (r = 0.46, P less than 0.05), but no significant correlations between duration of sensory analgesia and sex, weight, height, body surface area, serum albumin concentration, duration or site of operation.

Abdomen↗
PubMed1988

Effect of patient-controlled analgesia on plasma catecholamine, cortisol and glucose concentrations after cholecystectomy.

To quantify the effects of postoperative pain relief on surgical stress response, 16 patients undergoing cholecystectomy were allocated randomly to double-blind treatment with either fentanyl by patient controlled analgesia (PCA) with the Prominject plus saline given s.c. by nurses on demand (PCA group) or saline by the infusion pump plus morphine 10 mg/70 kg s.c. by nurses on demand (control). Pain intensity (VAS) and plasma catecholamine, cortisol and glucose concentrations were measured 2-hourly for 12 h after operation. PCA improved postoperative pain intensity (P less than 0.05) and reduced plasma cortisol (P less than 0.05), but not glucose and catecholamine concentrations compared with the control group. Thus improved postoperative pain relief per se by PCA with systemic opioids had no major influence on the catabolic response to abdominal surgery.

Aged↗
PubMed1988

No effect of continuous i.p. infusion of bupivacaine on postoperative analgesia, pulmonary function and the stress response to surgery.

In a double-blind prospective study, 20 patients undergoing major abdominal surgery were allocated randomly to receive a continuous 8-h i.p. infusion of either physiological saline or 0.25% bupivacaine 20 ml h-1 (in saline) following a loading dose of saline 1 ml kg-1 or 0.25% bupivacaine 1 ml kg-1 on entering the peritoneum. The following variables were measured before and at 2-h intervals during the infusion: serum glucose and cortisol concentrations, forced vital capacity, forced expiratory volume in the first second, peak expiratory flow rate and pain at rest, on mobilization and on coughing (visual analogue scale). Postoperative pain, impairment in pulmonary function and increase in serum cortisol and glucose concentrations were not influenced by the i.p. infusion of bupivacaine when compared with saline. This study shows that the i.p. instillation of therapeutically safe doses of bupivacaine was without effect in the management of pain, postoperative pulmonary dysfunction and the stress response in this group of patients.

Abdomen↗
PubMed1988

The modifying effect of anesthetic technique on the metabolic and endocrine responses to anesthesia and surgery.

In spite of the fact that our knowledge on the release mechanisms of the surgical stress response is rather incomplete, several techniques are available to modulate the response. However, at present it appears that no technique is capable to effectively suppress all aspects of the injury response and the widespread use of the term "stress free anesthesia" in surgery is therefore not valid. However, continuous administration of local anesthetic agents in the epidural space is the most effective technique in so far as reduction of the stress response is concerned. The clinical implication of a variable reduction in the stress response to surgery by different anesthetic techniques remains largely unsettled, since only few controlled studies have been published on the clinical effects of pain relief and general anesthesia. However, a vast amount of data exist from controlled studies comparing regional anesthesia with local anesthetics and general anesthesia. The cumulative experience from these studies have demonstrated an advantageous effect on postoperative morbidity parameters such as blood loss, postoperative thromboembolic complications, pulmonary infective complications, gastrointestinal motility, postoperative hospital stay, etc. The most pronounced effect on morbidity in these studies is in procedures where regional anesthesia has also been demonstrated to be most effective on the surgical stress response. However, whether this is a causal relationship or a coincidental event, has not been finally answered.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Anesthesia, Conduction↗
PubMed1988

Regional anaesthesia and surgical morbidity.

This review assesses the results of studies examining the influence of regional anaesthesia on surgical morbidity. Morbidity appears to be reduced when procedures below the umbilicus are concerned, but evidence is less convincing for upper abdominal and thoracic procedures.

Anesthesia, Conduction↗
PubMed1988

Epidural bupivacaine and morphine plus systemic indomethacin eliminates pain but not systemic response and convalescence after cholecystectomy.

We studied 24 patients undergoing elective cholecystectomy and randomized to either conventional postoperative pain treatment, with intermittent nicomorphine (10 to 15 mg) and acetaminophen (1 gm) on request, or thoracic epidural analgesia with plain bupivacaine for 48 hours and epidural morphine 4 mg every 8 hours for 96 hours plus systemic indomethacin 100 mg every 8 hours for 96 hours. Epidural analgesia for pin prick extended from the fourth thoracic to the first lumbar nerve for 48 hours. Assessments of pain, various injury response parameters, peak flow, and subjective feeling of fatigue were performed preoperatively, 3 and 6 hours after skin incision, and 1, 2, 4, and 8 days postoperatively. The epidural analgesia-systemic indomethacin treatment eliminated postoperative pain during rest and coughing. In contrast, only a minor and clinically unimportant modulation of the conventional perioperative and postoperative changes in plasma cortisol, glucose, transferrin, orosomucoid, leukocyte and differential counts, rectal temperature, peak flow, and fatigue was observed. Our results suggest that factors other than pain per se must be controlled in order to reduce postoperative morbidity.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

The roles of acute and chronic pain in regression of sensory analgesia during continuous epidural bupivacaine infusion.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether regression of sensory analgesia during constant epidural bupivacaine infusion was different in postoperative patients with acute pain than in patients with chronic nonsurgical pain. Sensory levels of analgesia (to pinprick) and pain (on a five-point scale) were assessed hourly for 16 hours during continuous epidural infusion of 0.5% plain bupivacaine (8 ml/hr) in 12 patients with chronic nonsurgical pain and in 30 patients after major abdominal surgery performed under combined bupivacaine and halothane--N2O general anesthesia. No opiates were given. If sensory analgesia decreased more than five segments from the initial level or if the pain score reached 2 (moderate pain), the patient was removed from the study. Initial levels of sensory analgesia after loading doses of 21.8 +/- 0.5 and 19.3 +/- 0.8 ml bupivacaine 0.5% were similar (T3.8 +/- 0.3 and T3.8 +/- 0.5) in the surgical and chronic pain patients, respectively (mean +/- SEM). Of the surgical patients, only 4 of the 30 (13%) maintained the initial level of sensory analgesia, and a pain score below 2 throughout the study compared with 7 of the 12 patients with chronic pain (58%) (P less than 0.01). Mean duration of sensory blockade was significantly longer (P less than 0.005) in the patients with chronic pain than in surgical patients (13.1 +/- 1.2 and 8.5 +/- 0.7 hours, respectively). Thus, surgical injury hastens regression of sensory analgesia during continuous epidural bupivacaine infusion. The underlying mechanism remains to be determined.

Aged↗
PubMed1988

Epidural blood flow and regression of sensory analgesia during continuous postoperative epidural infusion of bupivacaine.

Epidural blood flow was measured in seven patients undergoing elective abdominal surgery during combined lumbar epidural and general anesthesia. After an initial dose of 20 ml plain bupivacaine 0.5%, a continuous epidural infusion of bupivacaine 0.5% (8 ml/hr) was given for 16 hours for postoperative pain relief. The epidural blood flow was measured by a local 133Xe clearance technique in which 15-35 MBq 133Xe diluted in 1 ml saline was injected through the epidural catheter on the day before surgery (no bupivacaine), 30 minutes after the initial dose of bupivacaine on the morning before surgery, and 8, 12, and 16 hours later during the continuous infusion. Initial blood flow was 6.0 +/- 0.7 ml/min per 100 g tissue (mean +/- SEM). After epidural bupivacaine, blood flow increased in all seven patients to 7.4 +/- 0.7 ml (P less than 0.02). Initial level of sensory analgesia was T4.5 +/- 0.17 (mean +/- SEM). Postoperatively, two patients maintained the initial level of sensory analgesia and low pain score throughout the 16-hour study. In these two patients epidural blood flow remained constant after the initial increase. Flow increased further to 10.3 +/- 0.8 ml/min per 100 g tissue (P less than 0.03) in the other five patients as the level of sensory analgesia regressed postoperatively. These data suggest that changes in epidural blood flow during continuous epidural infusion of bupivacaine, and thus changes in rates of vascular absorption of bupivacaine from the epidural space, may be an important factor contributing to differences in rates of regression of sensory analgesia.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Effect of extradural morphine on somatosensory evoked potentials to dermatomal stimulation.

The effect of the extradural (L2-3) administration of morphine 6 mg on early (less than 0.5 s) somatosensory evoked cortical potentials (SEP) to electrical stimulation of the L1- and S1-dermatomes was examined in eight patients. Extradural morphine did not influence SEP amplitude. SEP latency did not change, except for a minor increase in the latencies of the onset and the P2 components following S1 stimulation.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Effect of i.v. lignocaine on pain and the endocrine metabolic responses after surgery.

Pain intensity, and blood glucose and plasma cortisol concentrations were measured following abdominal hysterectomy in 18 patients allocated randomly to receive either i.v. lignocaine 1.5 mg kg-1 plus 2 mg kg-1 h-1, or saline. The administration of lignocaine resulted in plasma concentrations between 1.5 and 2.0 micrograms ml-1 during the 2-h study period. However, the administration of lignocaine i.v. had no effect on the intensity of pain after surgery, or on the adrenocortical and hyperglycaemic responses to surgery.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Prediction of cardiac risk in non-cardiac surgery.

This prospective study was carried out to develop a model for the prediction of cardiac risk in non-cardiac surgery. Detailed data were collected concerning the preoperative status of 2609 consecutive patients, who were followed closely during the postoperative course. Fatal or life-threatening cardiac complications occurred in 68 patients (2.6%). By utilizing logistic regression, a model for prediction of cardiac risk was developed. The model contained six significant preoperative predictor variables: Congestive heart failure (with 3 degrees of severity); ischaemic heart disease (with 2 degrees of severity); diabetes mellitus; serum creatinine above 0.13 mmol l-1; emergency operation; and the type of operation (two categories). With this model it seems possible to discriminate between patients with very different levels of cardiac risk.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Re-evaluation of the clinical value of the 30 min ACTH test in assessing the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical function.

The insulin hypoglycaemia test has been widely used for assessing the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical function. The outcome of this test has been compared to that of the 30 min ACTH test in 200 consecutive patients with proven or suspected hypothalamic-pituitary disorder. A significant correlation (R = 0.83, P less than 0.001) between the results of the two tests was found. In patients in whom blood glucose levels fell to 2.2 mmol/l (40 mg/dl) or below, the ratio between the peak plasma cortisol concentration during hypoglycaemia and plasma cortisol concentration 30 min after ACTH was 1.002. In patients in whom blood glucose concentration declined to 2.3-3.0 mmol/l (41-54 mg/dl) the ratio was significantly lower (0.828). In eight patients discordant results between the two tests were found. In two patients the ACTH test was normal despite impaired response to insulin. They were studied shortly after acute symptoms of a pituitary adenoma necrosis. Two patients had subnormal responses to insulin despite the fact that pituitary-adrenal function appeared to be intact. In both cases relative insufficiency of the hypoglycaemic stimulus was the likely cause of the discrepancy. In the remaining four patients results of one test was marginally below, and that of the other test marginally above the lower limit of normal. It is concluded that the 30 min ACTH test is reliable for assessing integrated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal function (except shortly after acute ACTH deprivation).

Adrenocorticotropic Hormone↗