News About Anesthesia

Global surgery, especially academic global surgery, is of tremendous interest to many surgeons. Classically, it entails personnel from high-income countries going to low- and middle-income countries and engaging in educational activities as well as procedures. Academic medical personnel have included students, residents, and attendings. The pervasive notion is that this is a win–win situation for the volunteers and the hosts, that is, a pathway to bilateral academic success. However, a critical examination demonstrates that it can easily become the bold new face of colonialism of a low- and middle-income country by a high-income country.

Anesthesia professionals – who are in close contact as they help patients breathe through airway equipment – are at increased risk of exposure to COVID-19 and should wear N95 masks or similarly protective equipment including diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical procedures, according to an updated statement from The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF), the American Academy of Anesthesiologist Assistants (AAAA) and the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA).

Anesthesia-induced loss of consciousness is accompanied by microscale changes in neural signaling patterns, according to a recent study. The results highlight the role of local network dynamics in managing conscious states. General anesthesia produces medically induced loss of consciousness (mLOC), and its implementation is fundamental to modern surgical practice. Despite the importance of mLOC, the physiologic processes underlying loss of consciousness remain unclear. Current theory suggests that a key prerequisite for consciousness is the brain’s ability to select one set of sensory input while rejecting alternatives. Research supporting this theory has identified a collection of “resting states”—patterns of cortical activity that may represent these discriminable sets of sensory inputs.

Shares of Mallinckrodt Plc (MNK.N) fell 12% on Tuesday after a U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a federal district court’s decision to reject the drugmaker’s patent infringement lawsuit against Praxair Inc’s nitric oxide drug product delivery system.

It’s a familiar tale of inexorable demographics and health trends: the rapid graying of America, the growing chronic disease burden, and the exodus of physicians and nurses from the baby boomer generation into retirement, thus fueling a health care worker shortage that will mushroom over the next two decades. The story translates into impending recruitment challenges for medical practices and institutions across the sector to meet the large and still-growing demand for medical care, including surgery—with its attendant anesthesia services—to serve a burgeoning population of older, sicker patients.