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Clean slates

Monitoring device fails to lower risk of anesthesia awareness (http://mednews.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/11282.html)

March 12, 2008 -- Anesthesiology researchers at the School of Medicine have found that a device used to ensure that surgery patients have no memories of their operations may not lower the risk of the phenomenon known as anesthesia awareness — an extremely rare but distressing occurance.


Dividing line

Researchers separate analgesic effects from addictive aspects of pain-killing drugs (http://mednews.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/9876.html)

Aug. 20, 2007 --
Mice developed in the laboratory of Zhou-Feng Chen don't experience relief from pain when given opiate drugs such as morphine.
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For the first time, pain researchers at the School of Medicine have shown that it's possible to separate the good effects of opiate drugs such as morphine (pain relief) from the unwanted side effects of those drugs (tolerance, abuse and addiction). The investigators, led by Zhou-Feng Chen, Ph.D., associate professor of anesthesiology, psychiatry and molecular biology and pharmacology, report their results online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They found that opiates like morphine don't relieve pain as well in mice genetically engineered to lack neurons that produce a neurotransmitter called serotonin in the central nervous system.


Relief for the itch

Scratch no more: Gene for itch sensation discovered (http://mednews.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/9731.html)

July 25, 2007 --
Itching for a better anti-itch remedy? Your wish may soon be granted now that scientists at the School of Medicine have identified the first gene for the itch sensation in the central nervous system. The discovery could rapidly lead to new treatments directly targeting itchiness and providing relief for chronic and severe itching.



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New Study Raises Questions on Anesthesia Monitoring System
The Washington Post and 1 others

March 14, 2008 -- The horrifying experience of anesthesia awareness happens to between 20,000 and 40,000 Americans every year. A WUSTL study in the New England Journal of Medicine led by WUSTL anesthesiology professor Michael Avidan is raising questions about a monitor used by about 60 percent of U.S. operating rooms in an effort to prevent these frightening cases.


Monitors Don't Stop Patients From Waking
Associated Press and 138 others

March 13, 2008 -- Article on anesthesia awareness.
Patients say they wake up during surgery, unable to move or scream.
Some experts have said special brain-wave monitors were the best way to prevent anesthesia awareness. Now, in a big setback for efforts to prevent it, the first large, independent test of the monitors shows they are no better than older technology.
WUSTL medical school researchers led by anesthesiology professor Michael Avidan comments.
The study was published in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.


Potential anesthesia risk for children has government worried
Associated Press and 65 others

March 30, 2007 -- Anesthesia can be harmful to the developing brain, studies on animals suggest, raising concerns about potential risks in putting young children under for surgery.
The study published by FDA scientists this month in the journal Anesthesia & Analgesia.
"These findings have potentially important public health implications, and pose a therapeutic dilemma for physicians," said WUSTL psychiatry professor John Olney.


Mice offer insight into new pain drugs
Associated Press and 36 others

April 6, 2006 -- WUSTL researchers studying mice said they have found key factors in the body that could lead to making better pain-reducing drugs.
WUSTL scientist Robert Gereau led the team that studied mice that were missing a specific potassium gene that regulates pain messages sent from the spinal cord to the brain.
The research advances a previous Harvard University study and will be published in the journal Neuron.



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