News About Anesthesia

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.

When Colorado legalized marijuana, it became a pioneer in creating new policies to deal with the drug. Now the state’s surgeons, nurses and anesthesiologists are becoming pioneers of a different sort in understanding what weed may do to patients who go under the knife. Their observations and initial research show that marijuana use may affect patients’ responses to anesthesia on the operating table — and, depending on the patient’s history of using the drug, either help or hinder their symptoms afterward in the recovery room.