Anesthesia Clinical Trials

The purpose of this study is to understand changes in heart function (how the heart pumps blood) and blood flow in people who receive general anesthesia during surgery. The researchers are particularly interested in the heart function and blood flow changes in people who experience low blood pressure (hypotension) after receiving anesthesia. Read Less

This pilot study in healthy volunteers aims to determine if biological sex has an impact on recovery from dexmedetomidine-induced unconsciousness, and if transcranial magnetic stimulation combined with electroencephalography (TMS-EEG) can be used to measure brain complexity during dexmedetomidine sedation without arousing study participants. Read Less

Children undergoing surgery and anesthesia are often negatively impacted by anxiety and fear in the preoperative period. Routine inhalational anesthetic induction is a unique aspect of pediatric anesthesia. Inhalation inductions are usually initiated with sevoflurane with or without nitrous oxide. While less pungent than other volatile agents, sevoflurane at high concentrations and flows used for inhalation inductions still causes children to often repel from the smell. This can lead to an unpleasant interaction and cause heightened anxiety for any subsequent procedures. Olfactory senses are processed in the hippocampus and amygdala and tied to emotion and memory. Parosmia is the distortion of smell perception which can utilized to the pediatric anesthesiologists advantage. It has been demonstrated that using this phenomenon, the anesthesiologist can induce a better smell for the child leading to improved cooperation during an inhalation induction. However, limitations of this study include lack of randomization, small sample size, and use of a nominal scale of yes or no for face mask acceptance. The investigators identified no other studies to validate this potentially powerful tool to optimize anesthetic induction for pediatric patients. The overall objective of this pilot randomized trial is to determine the feasibility of parosmia during inhalation inductions to decrease perioperative stress for children and provide key pilot data to power a larger study to determine effectiveness of parosmia during inhalation inductions to decrease perioperative stress for children and provide key pilot data to power a larger study to determine effectiveness of parosmia. Read Less

Perioperative fasting has historically been viewed as a low-risk intervention. However, preliminary data indicate that perioperative loss of nutrition and fluids is likely harmful. This study intends to characterize perioperative fasting practices and their potential effects on clinical outcomes through possible effects on patient well-being (anxiety, hunger, thirst), physiology (hypovolemia, hypotension), perioperative aspiration, etc. We hypothesized that in addition to known adverse effects on patients' well-being, prolonged preoperative fasting adversely affects circulating blood volume-related (hypotension, decreased urine output etc.) and glucose metabolism-related (e.g., hypo/hyperglycemia) perioperative physiology. Additional knowledge on the potential adverse effects of preoperative fasting will inform preoperative fasting policies and research interventions that are relevant to hundreds of millions of patients subjected to preoperative/preprocedural fasting worldwide each year. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of acute pain on long-term memory and conditioned physiologic responses in the presence and absence of low dose sevoflurane. Functional magnetic resonance imaging will be used to identify the neural correlates of these phenomena. The study will occur over 2 visits and involves no long-term follow up. Read Less

The Study is designed to collect information about adverse events that occur in children undergoing anesthesia in participating hospitals. Demographic information will be collected on all anesthetics. An analysis of each adverse event will be performed and entered into the database. From this information we will devise strategies to prevent these adverse events. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to compare the effects of administration of oral methadone preoperatively and intravenous methadone upon induction of general anesthesia on postoperative pain for patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery. Read Less

Low blood pressure, also known as hypotension, is very common during major surgery under general anesthesia. Prolonged or severe hypotension can lead to complications such as kidney injury after surgery that slow down patient recovery. Anesthesiologists commonly administer medications called vasopressors to treat low blood pressure during surgery. These medications help raise the blood pressure back up to a safe range. Two vasopressor medications are commonly used for this purpose: norepinephrine and phenylephrine. Each of these medications has slightly different effects on the heart and blood vessels (cardiovascular system). It remains unknown which of these standard medications is better for treating low blood pressure during surgery. The goal of this clinical trial is to determine which of these two medications is better at preventing injury to the kidneys after major noncardiac surgery as well as other complications such as heart problems. Major surgeries are defined as those lasting at least two hours under general anesthesia. This trial will randomize about ten centers in North America to use either norepinephrine or phenylephrine as the primary medication to treat low blood pressure in adults undergoing major noncardiac surgery. Each hospital will prioritize one of the drugs each month, and the assigned drug will rotate each month at each hospital. No further participant involvement will be required as de-identified data are collected as part of standard medical care. Read Less

A comparison of two anesthetic techniques for total knee replacements: (1) Peri-Articular Injection (PAI), local infiltration between the popliteal artery and capsule of the knee block (IPACK) and single-shot adductor canal block (ACB) vs. (2) PAI, IPACK and continuous adductor canal block catheter (ACC). Read Less

The objective of this proposal is to conduct a prospective randomized study comparing the utility of sedating patients undergoing transesophageal echocardiographic studies with a novel, recently-FDA-approved sedative agent, remimazolam, versus the sedative used in our current practice at UAB, propofol. This study will investigate whether remimazolam offers any benefit over current care vis-à-vis hemodynamics or efficiency/throughput. This study will be conducted at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. All outpatients and inpatients scheduled for elective/non-emergent TEE in the UAB Heart and Vascular Center TEE lab will be considered for enrollment. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the hemodynamics and adverse event profile in comparison between two treatment arms, one using an admixture of propofol and etomidate at a ratio by volume of 25%/75% (P2E7), and one using an admixture of propofol and etomidate at a ratio by volume of 75%/25% (P7E2), for anesthesia during endoscopic procedures at the Clements University Hospital (CUH) endoscopy lab (Endo). Read Less

Comparison of post-operative pain after total shoulder surgery. The Principle Investigator will be comparing Exparel single shot block to Interscalene catheter Read Less