The Art of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia: “Better” can be Difficult to Quantify

Specific techniques have known strengths and weaknesses in cardiothoracic and vascular anesthesia. In this issue of the Journal, Heybati et al. presented a network meta-analysis of postoperative outcomes associated with volatile and intravenous anesthetics in patients undergoing cardiac, thoracic, and vascular surgery. 1 The authors examined 53 randomized controlled trials encompassing 8,085 patients. 1 A propofol-based total intravenous anesthetic (TIVA) served as the control. Ten other groups, including volatile anesthetics, xenon, diazepam and ketamine, thiopental, midazolam, and the combination of sevoflurane and propofol, were studied.
Source: Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia - Category: Anesthesiology Authors: Tags: Letter to the Editor Source Type: research