Mahmoud Saghaei

Isfahan University of Medical Sciences · Intensive Care and Anesthesia Department

Background & Aim: Although trachea-bronchial suctioning (TBS) is one of the important nursing procedures in intensive care units (ICU), it may be associated with some complications. Using closed system suctioning (CSS) is one of the ways to decrease the rate of complications due to continued ventilation and oxygenation at the time of suctioning. Ho...

Background: After trauma, clinical examinations and laboratory tests to assess trauma can provide an overview of patients' prognosis, which is important for the optimal management of patients. In this research project, we decided to compare two scoring systems of Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Eva...

Background Tracheal sound analysis is a simple way to study the abnormalities of upper airway like airway obstruction. Hence, it may be an effective method for detection of alveolar hypoventilation and respiratory depression. This study was designed to investigate the importance of tracheal sound analysis to detect respiratory depression during cat...

Background: Recently, there are many scoring systems to determine the mortality rate among the patients with trauma. The aim of this study was to compare the Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS) III and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) tests in determining the degree of mortality in patients with trauma admitted to the intensive care...

Background: Elderly patients are susceptible to post-induction hypotension. Volume loading and vasopressors for prevention of hypotension in elderly patients may increase perioperative cardiovascular risks. Ondansetron by blocking Bezold-Jarisch reflex (BJR) through inhibition of serotonin receptors has been effective in the prevention of post-spi...

Investigation of strategies and methods of therapy in stutterers regarding to its characteristics, length of treatment, and relapse of stuttering is very important. Acupuncture has been introduced as a therapeutic method for the treatment of stuttering. The aim of the present research was the identification of the results of intervention of laser a...

Background: Bone marrow aspiration and biopsy (BMA/BMB) is a painful procedure mostly used in diagnosing and staging of a broad spectrum of hematological diseases. In spite of local anesthesia, the prevalence and intensity of the pain and patient discomfort caused by this procedure are considerable. The effect of acupuncture and electrical stimulat...

A retrospective study has shown lesser days of hospital stay in patients with increased levels of intra-operative end-tidal carbon dioxide (ETCO2). It is probable that hypercapnia may exert its beneficial effects on patients' outcome through optimization of global hemodynamic and tissue oxygenation, leading to a lower rate of post-operative complic...

Hypercoagulability has been reported in primary brain tumors which can lead to thrombotic complications. Hydroxyethyl starch (hetastarch) is a synthetic colloid solution with adverse effects on blood coagulation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the protective effect of hetastarch in reducing thromboembolic events in these patients. In a doubl...

Background: Topical anesthesia in cataract surgery have several benefits compared with other methods of anesthesia; but there are not any studies aimed to assess the temperature of drug used for topical anesthesia. One of the most prevalent used drugs is tetracaine. The aim of this study was determining the quality of topical anesthesia with warmed...

Considering that protocols of postoperative pain management would be planned regarding the facilities of each center or region and the importance of its proper management to reduce its related complication and improve patient's satisfaction, in this study we compared the effect of orally administrated tramadol and acetaminophen-codeine in this rega...

Endotracheal suctioning (ETS) is one of the most common supportive measures in intensive care units (ICU). ETS may be associated with complications including hypoxia and tachycardia. Closed system suctioning (CSS) decreases the rate of cardiorespiratory complication mainly due to continuation of ventilatory support and oxygenation during procedure....

Failure to ventilate patients by mask leads to serious complications especially if associated with difficult intubation. Previous studies have used subjective and indirect measures to evaluate difficulty in mask ventilation, which are associated with high inter-observer discrepancies. In this study, we have defined and used efficiency of mask venti...

Tricyclic antidepressant (TCA) overdose is generally associated with central nervous system (CNS) and cardiovascular toxicity manifested by seizure, electrocardiographic (ECG) abnormalities and arrhythmia. The objective of this study was to determine whether TCA toxicity would be reduced in patient where benzodiazepine (BDZ) was co-ingested with TC...

Preoperative volume loading (PVL) in addition to counteract the decreases in blood pressure during intraoperative period, also may decrease postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV). This study was designed to investigate the effect of preoperative volume loading on the intraoperative blood pressure variability and postoperative nausea and vomiting....

• Background: Disease crisis causes metabolic changes and alters body weight. The aim of our study was defining the correlation of the difference between ideal body weight and body weight before disease and current body weight with the need to mechanical ventilation, the duration of mechanical ventilation, the length of stay and the outcome of ICU...

Randomization is an essential component of sound clinical trials, which prevents selection biases and helps in blinding the allocations. Randomization is a process by which subsequent subjects are enrolled into trial groups only by chance, which essentially eliminates selection biases. A serious consequence of randomization is severe imbalance amon...

Current minimization programs do not permit full control over different aspects of minimization algorithm such as distance or probability measures and may not allow for unequal allocation ratios. This article describes the implementation of “MinimPy” an open-source minimization program in Python programming language, which provides full customizeti...

The purpose of the study was to assess the incidence of aspiration pneumonitis (AP) and its association with gag reflex and Glasgow Coma Score (GCS). In a retrospective analysis study after prospective data collection, 155 poisoned patients with GCS less than or equal to 12 were evaluated. An assessment of GCS and the quality of gag reflex was made...

Background: Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery is very traumatic and makes patients very nervous. Since it is a main task of nurses to improve patients' comfort and safety, this study investigated the effect of therapeutic touch in cardi-ovascular patients' anxiety before CABG surgery.

Duration of laryngoscopy must be kept as short as possible to prevent disturbances of oxygenation and ventilation. Because the factors associated with prolonged laryngoscopy are not well known, we studied 1000 patients undergoing tracheal intubation under general anaesthesia to determine the possible effects of their characteristics on the incidenc...

Although numerous published materials recommend journals to become online, few of them mention the transitional period, and to our knowledge none of them propose a rational evidence based approach to overcome the difficulties inherent in this time period. Studying the experiences of different journals during their transition into online business ma...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the scores of the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II and a modified APACHE II system (MAS), without parameters of biochemical tests; and to find prognostic value of individual elements of the APACHE II and MAS in predicting outcomes in organophosphate (OP) poisoning. Data were collected...

Ketamine is a potent analgesic agent in addition to its anesthetic properties. Oral ketamine has been used to treat postoperative stump pain following lower limb amputation. In this study, oral ketamine was used to reduce the severity of postoperative pain following orthopedic surgery. Seventy-two adult traumatic patients undergoing orthopedic oper...

Post-extubation cough causes considerable patient discomfort and in certain surgical procedures may lead to postoperative surgical complication. Different drugs and techniques have been used for the prevention of post-extubation cough with variable success rates. Prophylactic administration of lidocaine has been tried for the prevention of post-ext...

Transcutaneous electrical stimulation (ES) has been shown to produce long-lasting fall of arterial blood pressure in animal or human models. Previous reports have shown that ES of acupuncture points (acupoints) enhances the hypotensive effect of isoflurane anesthesia. This study was designed to investigate the combined effect of acupoint ES and dif...

Determination of arterial blood gas (ABG) values is essential in the evaluation of patients with TCA poisoning. The relationship between arterial and venous blood gas pH has not been established in TCA poisoning. In TCA poisoning, blood vessels vasodilatation due to antidepressant-induced alpha-blockade and also metabolic acidosis may lead to arter...

Background: Previous studies have shown that progesterone increases the ventilatory performance in healthy individuals and in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disorders. The study was designed to investigate the effect of a single intramuscular administration of progesterone on ventilatory performance in adult trauma patients during part...

Paradoxical reactions to benzodiazepines include restlessness, violent behavior, physical assault, act of self-injury and need for restraints. These may occur at variable times after administration. This study was designed to determine the incidence of paradoxical reactions following intravenous midazolam premedication in pediatric patients and to...

Typically, randomization software should allow users to exert control over the different aspects of randomization including block design, provision of unique identifiers and control over the format and type of program output. While some of these characteristics have been addressed by available software, none of them have all of these capabilities i...

Several drugs and techniques have been used to reduce the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV). However PONV continues to be a common postoperative complication. Midazolam premedication in pediatric patients has been reported to reduce the incidence of PONV. In the present study the effect of intravenous midazolam premedication on...

Pressor response to laryngoscopy and tracheal intubation includes rises in blood pressure and heart rate. This response may be harmful in the presence of cerebral or myocardial diseases. Although different preventive measures have been developed the choice of the agent or method has not been defined clearly. Hypocapnia is commonly used in anesthesi...

Rapid Opiate Detoxification (ROD) is among the best treatments for substance abuse. Unfortunately this method is associated with severe withdrawal reaction. The effect of body acupuncture has not been clearly identified during ROD. This study was designed to evaluate the effect of acupuncture on the severity of withdrawal reaction during ROD. Forty...

Unlabelled: The finger plethysmographic waveform of pulse oximeters is a qualitative indicator of fingertip perfusion. This waveform has been used to assess the depth of anesthesia. Its cyclical changes associated with mechanical ventilation have also been used to detect changes in blood volume under normotensive conditions and has revealed that m...

Measurement of systolic arterial blood pressure using a pulse oxymeter involves the evaluation of plethysmographic waveform during inflation and/or deflation of a blood pressure cuff. The purpose of this study was to determine that during slow inflation and deflation of cuff, which one of the pulse oxymetry-based readings of blood pressure is in be...

Duration of laryngoscopy must be kept as short as possible to prevent disturbances of oxygenation and ventilation. Because the factors associated with prolonged laryngoscopy are not well known, we studied 1000 patients undergoing tracheal intubation under general anaesthesia to determine the possible effects of their characteristics on the incidenc...

Bloodletting acupuncture has been used for the treatment of a variety of upper respiratory tract problems, especially those of laryngeal origin. This study assesses its efficacy in reducing the incidence of stridor after tracheal extubation in children undergoing general anaesthesia with halothane. Sixty children were randomly allocated to an acupu...

Cricoid pressure (CP) has been used to protect the patient from regurgitation and gastric insufflation. Because the hemodynamic effects of CP have not been evaluated independently, we designed this prospective study. Eighty ASA I adult patients were prospectively included in the study. Patients were randomly divided into Cricoid and Placebo groups....

Introduction. Use of analgesics is an evitable and necessary part of thoracic surgery. This study was designed to compare analgesic effects of persistent thoracic epidural anesthesia versus persistent intercostal nerve block and determine their role in opioid need after thoracotomy. Methods. 116 patients above 20 years old who were candidate for th...

Pulsus alternans is a classic type of abnormal pulse. It can be defined as a regular alternation of pulse amplitude in which runs of weak and strong beats follow each other alternatively without any change in cycle length. It may be a sign of severe decompensated congestive heart failure. The authors infrequently encountered some cases of pulsus al...