Delirium is a syndrome characterised by a disturbance in attention, awareness and cognition as a result of another physical condition. It occurs in up to 50% of patients after cardiac surgery and is associated with increased mortality, prolonged intensive care and hospital stay and long-term cognitive dysfunction. Identifying effective preventive interventions is important. We will therefore conduct a systematic review to identify all randomised controlled studies that have tested a pharmacological or non-pharmacological intervention to prevent delirium.

We will search electronic databases (CDSR (Reviews), CENTRAL (Trials), MEDLINE Ovid, Embase Ovid, PsycINFO Ovid) as well as trial registers (clinicaltrials.gov and ISCRTN) for randomised controlled trials of both pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions designed to prevent delirium after cardiac surgery in adults. Screening of search results and data extraction from included articles will be performed by two independent reviewers using Rayyan. The primary outcome will be the incidence of delirium. Secondary outcomes include: duration of postoperative delirium, all-cause mortality, length of postoperative hospital and intensive care stay, postoperative neurological complications other than delirium, health-related quality of life and intervention-specific adverse events. Studies will be assessed for risk of bias using the Cochrane RoB2 tool. A narrative synthesis of all included studies will be presented and meta-analysis (if appropriate network meta-analysis) will be undertaken where there are sufficient studies (three or more) for pooling results. Results will be reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement.

No ethical approval is required. This review will be disseminated via peer-reviewed manuscript and conferences.

CRD42022369068.

Postoperative delirium is a prominent and clinically important complication in older adults after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery, resulting in prolonged hospital stay, long-term cognitive impairment and increased morbidity and mortality. Many studies have shown that cerebral desaturation is associated with increased risk of postoperative delirium during on-pump cardiac surgery. However, few studies have focused on the effect of optimising regional cerebral oxygen saturation (rSO₂) on postoperative delirium during off-pump CABG. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether intraoperative anaesthetic management based on percutaneous cerebral oximetry monitoring decreases the incidence of postoperative delirium in older adults undergoing off-pump CABG.

This single-centre randomised controlled trial will randomly assign 200 patients to the intervention group or the control group at a ratio of 1:1. The patients in the intervention group will be observed by percutaneous cerebral oximetry monitoring that the desaturation (a drop of more than 20% from baseline value or rSO₂ less than 55% for >60 consecutive seconds at either probe) during the procedure triggered the intervention strategies, while the cerebral oximetry data of the control group will be hidden from the clinical team and patients will be anaesthetised by the usual anaesthetic management. The primary outcome will be the incidence of postoperative delirium during the first 7 days after off-pump CABG. Delirium will be comprehensively evaluated by the combination of the Richmond Agitation Sedation Scale and the Confusion Assessment Method for the intensive care unit. The secondary outcomes will include the incidence of postoperative acute kidney injury and myocardial infarction during the hospital stay, as well as the intensive care unit and hospital length of stay.

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Fuwai Hospital (No 2022–1824). Written informed consent will be obtained from each patient or their legal representatives before enrolment. The results of this trial will be published in an international peer-reviewed scientific journal.

ChiCTR2300068537.

To compare the modified strategy for the right-sided double-lumen tube (R-DLT) placement using a combination of CT measurements and flexible video bronchoscopy guidance with traditional bronchoscopy technique.

Double-blind, parallel randomised control trial at a tertiary care medical centre in China. 100 patients undergoing video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery and requiring R-DLT were randomly allocated to the control group and the intervention group.

The control group used the traditional bronchoscopy-guided technique. In the intervention group, the length and anteroposterior diameter of the right main bronchus (RMB) were measured on CT images to select the side and size of the Rüsch tube, and then a black depth marker was placed on the tube according to the difference between the length of the RMB and the bronchial cuff. Under the guidance of bronchoscopy, the depth marker should be placed parallel to the tracheal carina and a characteristic white line on the tube should be parallel to the midline of the tracheal carina.

The primary endpoint was the positioning of right upper lobe (RUL) ventilatory slot and RUL bronchial orifice. The secondary endpoints included intubation data and perioperative adverse events.

Compared with the control group, our modified strategy significantly increased the optimal and acceptable position rate (76% vs 98%, respectively; p

This study demonstrates the superiority of our strategy and provides a new viable method for R-DLT placement.

Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR1900021676).

Catecholamine vasopressors such as norepinephrine are the standard drugs used to maintain mean arterial pressure during liver transplantation. At high doses, catecholamines may impair organ perfusion. Angiotensin II is a peptide vasoconstrictor that may improve renal perfusion pressure and glomerular filtration rate, a haemodynamic profile that could reduce acute kidney injury. Angiotensin II is approved for vasodilatory shock but has not been rigorously evaluated for treatment of hypotension during liver transplantation. The objective is to assess the efficacy of angiotensin II as a second-line vasopressor infusion during liver transplantation. This trial will establish the efficacy of angiotensin II in decreasing the dose of norepinephrine to maintain adequate blood pressure. Completion of this study will allow design of a follow-up, multicentre trial powered to detect a reduction of organ injury in liver transplantation.

This is a double-blind, randomised clinical trial. Eligible subjects are adults with a Model for End-Stage Liver Disease Sodium Score ≥25 undergoing deceased donor liver transplantation. Subjects are randomised 1:1 to receive angiotensin II or saline placebo as the second-line vasopressor infusion. The study drug infusion is initiated on reaching a norepinephrine dose of 0.05 µg kg^-1 min^-1 and titrated per protocol. The primary outcome is the dose of norepinephrine required to maintain a mean arterial pressure ≥65 mm Hg. Secondary outcomes include vasopressin or epinephrine requirement and duration of hypotension. Safety outcomes include incidence of thromboembolism within 48 hours of the end of surgery and severe hypertension. An intention-to-treat analysis will be performed for all randomised subjects receiving the study drug. The total dose of norepinephrine will be compared between the two arms by a one-tailed Mann-Whitney U test.

The trial protocol was approved by the local Institutional Review Board (#20–30948). Results will be posted on ClinicalTrials.gov and published in a peer-reviewed journal.

ClinicalTrials.govNCT04901169

Evaluate the feasibility of a trial of perioperative hypotension and serious complications.

A patient and assessor-blinded randomised feasibility trial.

We included patients in a tertiary university hospital.

We enrolled 80 adults scheduled for major non-cardiac surgery.

In patients randomised to tight blood pressure control, intraoperative mean arterial pressure (MAP) was targeted to ≥85 mm Hg maintained with norepinephrine infusion, and restarting chronic antihypertensive medications was delayed until the third postoperative day. In the reference group, intraoperative blood pressure was managed per routine and antihypertensive medications were restarted immediately after surgery.

Our first co-primary outcome was the fraction of time when intraoperative MAP was >85 mm Hg, intraoperative area (time integral) of MAP >85 mm Hg and MAP

Forty patients in each group were analysed. The median for intraoperative area of MAP >85 mm Hg was 1303 (772–2419) mm Hg*min in routine blood pressure (BP) cases and 2425 (1926–3545) mm Hg*min in tight BP control. The area for intraoperative MAP 85 mm Hg was 0.52 (0.25) and 0.87 (0.15). Antihypertensive medications were restarted 2 (1–3) days later in tight BP control cases. However, postoperative SBPs were similar.

Tight BP management markedly increased intraoperative MAP and reduced the amount of hypotension. In contrast, delaying chronic antihypertensive medications had little effect on postoperative SBP. The full trial appears feasible and remains necessary but should not include postoperative antihypertensive management.

NCT04789733.

Stellate ganglion block (SGB) is usually used in the department of algiatry. But preoperative SGB may reduce adverse cardiovascular events in high-risk patients, although evidence remains sparse. Therefore, we aim to determine whether a single-shot postoperative SGB can reduce the incidence of myocardial injury after non-cardiac surgery (MINS) and improve recovery in patients undergoing laparoscopic radical resection for colorectal cancer.

This is an investigator-initiated, single-centre, randomised, two-arm clinical trial enrolling patients aged over 45 years and scheduled for elective laparoscopic radical colorectal surgery with at least one risk factor for MINS. A total of 950 eligible patients will be randomised into a routine or block groups. The primary outcome is the incidence of MINS. The secondary outcomes include the Visual Analogue Scale of pain during rest and movement, the incidence of delirium, quality of recovery (QOR) assessed by QOR-15, and sleep quality assessed by Richards Campbell Sleep Questionnaire. Tertiary outcomes include time to first flatus, gastrointestinal complications such as anastomotic leak or ileus, length of hospital stay, collapse incidence of severe cardiovascular and cerebrovascular complications of myocardial infarction, cardiac arrest, ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke, and all-cause mortality within 30 days after the operation.

The protocol was approved by Medical Ethics Committee of the China-Japan Union Hospital, Jilin University (Approval number: 2021081018) prior to recruitment. The study will be performed according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki. The findings of this study will be published and presented through various scientific forums.

ChiCTR2200055319.

The optimal puncture technique for neuraxial anaesthesia in different populations is unclear. We sought to obtain data from randomised controlled trials comparing the impact of ultrasound-guided technology and traditional positioning technology on the success rate of neuraxial anaesthesia.

Systematic review and network meta-analysis using study populations, interventions, intervention comparisons, outcome measures and study types.

PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library and Web of science were searched until 31 September 2022.

We included randomised controlled trials comparing three types of neuraxial anaesthesia: ultrasound-assisted, ultrasound real-time guidance and conventional positioning to describe which neuraxial anaesthesia modality is best for patients and to recommend the appropriate one for different populations.

Five independent reviewers retrieved, screened and edited included studies using standardised methods. Assess risk of bias using the Cochrane Collaboration and Evidence Project tools. Network meta-analysis was performed using STATA V.15 statistical software.

Twenty-two studies containing three different interventions were included. The SUCRA values of first-pass success rates for the three neuraxial anaesthesia methods were real-time guidance (82.8%), ultrasound-assisted (67.1%) and traditional positioning (0.1%). Both ultrasound techniques improved first-pass success rates compared with traditional localization, but there was no significant difference between the two. Subgroup analysis showed that the use of real-time ultrasound guidance for neuraxial anaesthesia in pregnant and patients with obesity improved first-pass success rates. Ultrasound-assisted technology can improve first-attempt success rates in older patients with abnormal lumbar spine anatomy.

Compared with conventional positioning, ultrasound guidance technology can improve the first-pass success rate of neuraxial anaesthesia, but there is no significant difference between ultrasound-assisted and real-time guidance technology. The results of subgroup analysis tell us that the most suitable neuraxial anaesthesia method is different for different groups of people.

PROSPERO number: CRD42022376041.