Anesthesia Clinical Trials

To discover if a positive description of the procedure for an epidural can reduce the overall pain score associated with the procedure. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to assess the feasibility of SafeLM as a primary airway device and as a conduit for intubation with and without the use of a bougie Read Less

The purpose of this study is to assess and compare conditions for tracheal intubation obtained with modified time principal induction with 0.6 mg/kg rocuronium and 1 mg/kg succinylcholine. Specifically, the investigators will be evaluating ease of laryngoscopy, vocal cord view, vocal cord opening, and movement of limbs and coughing during tracheal intubation in order to assess intubation conditions, to compare efficiency and success rate of tracheal intubation between two induction agents and to determine the rate of patient awareness during induction and post-operative recall of paralysis. 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 researchers expect to gain a deeper understanding of mental function during different levels of anesthesia, and to evaluate if the use of ultrasonic brain stimulation accelerates return to consciousness. Propofol is FDA approved for use in patients undergoing an anesthetic for medical treatment but is not approved for use in healthy volunteers. 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

In this research study we want to learn more about using non-invasive tools as a way to predict whether or not a child under general anesthesia will require and respond to fluid administration. It is important for an anesthesiologist to know if a child would respond to fluid administration so that they can provide the optimal intervention for low blood pressure and avoid unnecessary treatment. Read Less

This is a randomized controlled trial in patients who require clinical anesthesia. The main purpose of this study is to understand whether there are differences in the cerebral blood flow, and oxygen metabolism affected by two types of anesthesia: propofol or sevoflurane. Subjects who require clinical anesthesia for a clinical MRI and for whom the use of propofol and sevoflurane are in clinical equipoise will be offered to have the anesthesia they will receive during their MRI randomized. All eligible subjects will be asked to provide informed consent before participating in the study. Read Less

The investigators will conduct a 12,500-patient randomized multi-center trial to determine (i) which general anesthesia technique yields superior patient recovery experiences in any of three surgical categories ((a) major inpatient surgery, (b) minor inpatient surgery, (c) outpatient surgery) and (ii) whether TIVA confers no more than a small (0.2 %) increased risk of intraoperative awareness than INVA in patients undergoing both outpatient and inpatient surgeries Read Less

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 is a prospective, randomized, controlled, non-inferiority study of patients undergoing tonsil surgeries at Boston Children's Hospital Waltham. The overall aim is to evaluate the efficacy of an opioid anesthetic plan (morphine, ketorolac, and acetaminophen versus an opioid sparing anesthetic plan (dexmedetomidine, ketorolac and acetaminophen) for perioperative analgesia and recovery time in patients undergoing tonsillectomies and tonsillotomies at Boston Children's Hospital Waltham. Secondary measures include rescue opioids administered in post-anesthesia care unit (PACU), re-operation secondary to bleeding, emergence delirium, post-operative nausea and vomiting, intraoperative hemodynamics, intraoperative vasopressor administration, and length of procedure. Read Less

Traditionally, general anesthesia is maintained with inhalational anesthesia (GAS), but there is a gap in knowledge regarding whether intravenous anesthesia (IV) can prevent deleterious postoperative outcomes in the geriatric surgical population. The goal of this clinical trial is to determine whether intravenous anesthesia (IV) leads to a decreased incidence of postoperative delirium (POD), postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD), and functional decline, and improved patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in older adults undergoing non-cardiac surgery when compared to the standard inhalational anesthesia (GAS). This single-center, 1:1 randomized, double-blind (patient & outcome assessor) clinical trial will compare inhalational vs. intravenous anesthesia on POD, POCD, functional status, patient-reported outcomes (PROs), and blood-based biomarkers in older patients undergoing elective, inpatient, non-cardiac surgery. Upon enrollment, 260 women and men ≥ 70 years undergoing elective noncardiac surgery under general anesthesia will be randomized to 2 groups: TIVA or GAS. Read Less