Bent Jørgensen

Regular interval preventive pain relief compared with on demand treatment after hysterectomy.

&NA; Eighty otherwise healthy women, aged 22–64 years, admitted for elective hysterectomy were studied in a prospective randomized trial. The aim was to compare two different postoperative pain relief schedules—one with the analgesic given at regular intervals and the other with the analgesic given on demand. All the patients had a neuroleptanaesthesia with fentanyl. Forty patients received an initial dose of buprenorphine 0.3 mg intravenously before termination of anaesthesia and continued with sublingual buprenorphine 0.4 mg 6 hourly postoperatively (regular interval (RI) group). Forty patients received the standard postoperative medication, meperidine 1 mg/kg on demand in the recovery room, followed by ketobemidone 5 mg subcutaneously on demand in the surgical ward (on demand (OD) group). There was no difference between groups concerning pain relief following a single dose of analgesic (P > 0.05, type II error 1–5%.). In the recovery room 17.5% of the patients in the RI group received an analgesic compared to 87.5% in the OD group (P < 0.05). Among patients in the RI group who had previously got injections for postoperative pain relief on demand 95% preferred regular interval sublingual buprenorphine for future treatment. The nurses found that 90% of the patients in the RI group were treated adequately compared to 62.5% of the patients in the OD group (P < 0.05). It is concluded, that regular interval preventive pain relief is superior to conventional on demand analgesic therapy in postoperative pain.

Tracheal administration of atropine in children—effect on heart rate

Forty‐one ASA I patients, aged 2–6 years, anaesthetized for elective ear, nose and throat surgery, were studied in a double blind and randomized fashion in order to examine the effect of tracheally administered atropine 0.02 mg·kg−1 or saline 0.9% on heart rate. In patients receiving atropine heart rate increased 8.8 beats·min−1 (8.7%) and 16.2 beats·min−1 (16.0%) after 3 and 5 min respectively. No increase in heart rate was seen in the saline group. Because of the late onset of action and only moderate increase in heart rate it is concluded that tracheal administration of atropine 0.02 mg·kg−1 to children is insufficient in emergency situations.

The decay of208Tl. Gamma-ray measurement

The gamma rays following the decay of208Tl have been studied using a separated208Tl-source and a Ge(Li)-detector. A decay scheme is proposed, with levels in208Pb at 3,920, 4,126 and 4,180 keV in addition to previously well-established levels. No support was found forΒ-branching to levels above 4.2 MeV.