Latest Articles
- The changing profile of anesthetic practice: an update for internists
BACKGROUND Internists are commonly consulted to "clear" patients for anesthesia and surgery. Newer anesthetic agents and techniques now extend limits and possibilities beyond what many internists were taught.
OBJECTIVE To update internists on recent changes in anesthetic management and how they affect the preoperative evaluation.
SUMMARY Recent advances in anesthetic management include new monitoring standards, balanced anesthetic technique, new agents, equipment changes, better understanding of human factors, and expanded pain management techniques.
CONCLUSIONS Postoperative care will likely assume increasing importance in determining anesthesia-related morbidity and mortality. For this reason, increased interaction and cooperation between surgeons, internists, and anesthesiologists are needed.
- Efficacy of beta blockade, thrombolytic therapy, and coronary angioplasty in diabetic patients with coronary artery disease
Determining the effectiveness of these interventions in diabetic patients has received little attention, despite the association of diabetes with increased mortality from coronary artery disease.
- Cushing’s syndrome: easy to see, tricky to diagnose
The difficulty lies in determining whether the syndrome has a pituitary or nonpituitary cause.
- Skin lesions: when to suspect systemic causes
Systemic diseases that can produce skin lesions cover a spectrum that includes autoimmune, neoplastic, and infectious disease.
- Futile medicai treatment and patient consent
What are a physician’s ethical responsibilities when a patient or surrogate demands futile life-saving treatment?