Electroconvulsive therapy was safe for 8 patients with unrepaired AAA treated at our institution. Our findings may be informative to clinicians who manage the care of patients with unrepaired AAA who are undergoing ECT.
Patients who take chronic steroid medication are often prescribed extra "stress doses" before procedures involving general anesthesia. The rationale for this practice is that the chronic steroid use has suppressed the ability of the endogenous hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal steroid stress-reactivity system to handle the systemic stress of surgery. Whether the stress of treatments is sufficient enough to warrant this practice in electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has not been broached in the literature. In this case series, we describe our experience treating 27 ECT patients taking prednisone. We conclude that use of "stress doses" of extra steroid medication is unnecessary in ECT practice and recommend that patients receive their usual morning dose of steroid before ECT treatments.
The effect of a course of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) on blood pressure control in hypertensive patients has not been studied. We retrospectively examined pre- and post-ECT blood pressures in hypertensive and nonhypertensive patients. In neither group was there a statistically significant change in blood pressure with a course of ECT. We conclude that a course of ECT does not worsen blood pressure in hypertensive patients beyond the peritreatment period.
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