Drawing of the face of a Parkinson's disease patient showing characteristic symptoms: mainly hypomimia, a expression-less mask-like face. Appeared in Nouvelle iconographie de la Salpétrière [Tome 1] : clinique des maladies du système nerveux / publiée sous la direction du professeur Charcot,... ; par Paul Richer,... Gilles de la Tourette,... Albert Londe,.... - 1888. Chapter "Habitude exterieure et facies dans la paralyse agitante". Plate XL1V

1888 drawing of face of a Parkinson’s patient revealing “characteristic symptoms: mainly hypomimia, a expression-less mask-like face.” Appeared in Nouvelle iconographie de la Salpétrière [Tome 1] : clinique des maladies du système nerveux./Wikimedia

Here’s the abstract of our January original research CE article, “Original Research: Perioperative Medication Withholding in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease: A Retrospective Electronic Health Records Review.”

Abstract

Background: Carbidopa-levodopa (Sinemet), the gold-standard treatment for Parkinson’s disease, has a short half-life of one to two hours. When patients with Parkinson’s disease are placed on NPO (nil per os, or nothing by mouth) status for surgery, they may miss several doses of carbidopa-levodopa, possibly resulting in exacerbation of Parkinson’s disease symptoms. Clear guidelines regarding perioperative symptom management are lacking.

Objectives: The goals of this study were threefold: to measure the perioperative duration of the withholding of carbidopa-levodopa in patients with Parkinson’s disease, to record the time of day surgeries were performed on these patients, and to record perioperative exacerbations of Parkinson’s disease symptoms.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of patient electronic health records at a Midwestern public medical center. After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria and evaluating the eligible records, we had a final sample of 89 separate surgical events for 67 discrete patients who had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, had undergone any type of surgery excepting Parkinson’s disease surgeries, and were taking carbidopa-levodopa.

Results: The median duration of carbidopa-levodopa withholding was 12.35 hours, with most surgical procedures (86%) starting at 9 AM or later. The most commonly reported exacerbation of Parkinson’s disease symptoms was agitation or confusion.

Conclusions: For best symptom management, careful consideration should be given to scheduling surgery at the earliest possible time, administering medications as close to the patient’s usual dosing schedule as possible, and providing nursing education about optimal medication management for this patient population.

This will be the first of two CE articles we run on Parkinson’s disease. Following this report of findings from a quantitative study exploring symptom management and antiparkinson medication withholding times during hospitalization, the second article will report on “findings from a qualitative study of patients with Parkinson’s disease that focused on their hospitalization experiences, particularly with medication withholding.”


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