Publication Date
8-1-2014
Journal
The Texas Heart Institute Journal
DOI
10.14503/THIJ-13-3617
PMID
25120388
PMCID
PMC4120498
PubMedCentral® Posted Date
8-1-2014
PubMedCentral® Full Text Version
Post-Print
Published Open-Access
yes
Keywords
Abdominal fat, abdominal muscles/surgery, cardiorespiratory function, conscious sedation, hypnotics and sedatives, intraoperative care, obesity/blood/therapy, pressure
Abstract
Obese patients undergoing conscious-sedation surgery have increased perioperative morbidity because their excess abdominal tissue limits diaphragmatic excursion. We describe a simple device that might help attenuate this risk. We created a noninvasive suction device for abdominal suspension. By lifting the burden of excess weight, this device should decrease respiratory effort. To test the feasibility of excess weight removal in relieving cardiac stress, we tested 22 supine, healthy, normal-weight subjects by measuring their heart rates with and without a 13-kg tissue model on their abdomen to simulate excess weight. There was no significant difference in blood oxygen saturation before and after weight removal (P=0.318). However, the decrease in heart rate was significant (P