Veterans Special Report

News & Research

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy has been used for the better part of two centuries. Search our  arhives below for past HBOT news and research or scroll down for the latest.

The Latest HBOT News & Research

Clinical Trial – Quality of Recovery After General or Spinal Anesthesia for Inguinal Hernia Repair

Feb 23, 2016 | , ,

Different anesthetic techniques have been proposed for carrying out Inguinal hernia repair,
including local anesthesia, regional and general. There are no recent data on the application
of a validated questionnaire to assess which anesthetic technique, local infiltration under
general anesthesia or spinal anesthesia, would provide better quality of recovery in the
opinion of the patients undergoing inguinal hernia repair. The aim of the study is to perform
a randomized clinical trial comparing the quality of recovery (QoR-40) after local
infiltration under general anesthesia via laryngeal mask (LMA) or spinal anesthesia for
unilateral inguinal hernia repair. METHODS – Seventy patients aged 18 to 65 years old, who
were scheduled to undergo unilateral inguinal hernia repair at Santa Lucinda Hospital will be
enrolled in the study. The anesthesia will be performed according to the following sequence:
L Group – intravenous (I.V.) propofol and alfentanyl, followed by LMA positioning. The
anesthesia will be maintained by propofol. For local anesthesia, approximately 50 ml of 0.5%
ropivacaine will be infiltrated along the line of incision in the subcutaneous plane,
followed by peripheral nerve block technique (e.g., ilioinguinal-hypogastric nerve block) and
local wound infiltration at the fascial level. S Group – spinal puncture followed by
intrathecal 15 mg of 0.5% hyperbaric bupivacaine injection and sedation with propofol by
continuous infusion. Pain will be assessed every 15 minutes at Post-anesthesia Care Unit
(PACU) using a 0-10 numeric pain rating scale and I.V. morphine will be administered to
maintain the pain score below 4. The QoR-40 will be administered by a blind investigator 24
hours after surgery.

Clinical Trial – Fascia Iliaca Compartment Block for Proximal-end Femur Fractures

Feb 22, 2016 | , ,

Fracture femur is a common injury which is associated with excruciating pain. Positioning for
neuraxial blocks is always challenging because even slight overriding of the fracture ends is
intensely painful .It can causing major patient distress which accompanied by well-known
physiological sequelae such as sympathetic activation causing tachycardia, hypotension, and
increased cardiac work that may compromise high-risk cardiac patients.

Fascia iliaca compartment block is highly effective in blocking lateral cutaneous nerve of
the thigh and femoral nerve. Fascia iliaca compartment block is not only easy to perform but
it is also associated with minimal risk as the local anesthetic is injected at a safe
distance from the femoral artery and femoral nerve. It is always safe to perform the fascia
iliaca compartment block prior to spinal anesthesia as the patient can respond during
administration of the local anesthetic and can prevent intra-neuronal injections