A&A practice
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Pain control after open abdominal surgery often includes multimodal analgesia with thoracic epidural or transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block. After liposomal bupivacaine was approved for TAP blocks in 2015, it became an alternative to indwelling catheters. However, the pharmacokinetics and safety of its use during the perioperative period have not been thoroughly investigated, especially in conjunction with parenteral opioids. We present a case report of an elderly patient having urgent laparoscopic converted to open abdominal surgery, who experienced postoperative respiratory depression in the recovery room after multimodal therapy with liposomal bupivacaine TAP blocks, intravenous (IV) opioids, and ketorolac.
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An 18-month-old patient with hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy, type VII undergoing general anesthesia for Nissen fundoplication and gastrostomy tube is presented. This is the first reported case of a patient with this particular genetic mutation receiving general anesthesia. ⋯ The anesthetic considerations and implications of caring for a patient with this particular mutation and patients with other variations of hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy are also discussed. We show that a patient with de novo hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy, type VII without anhidrosis did not require intraoperative narcotics and did not experience bradycardia, asystole, or hemodynamic compromise.
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Opioids are frequently used for the treatment of chronic pain, and patients taking high doses are at increased risk of complications and adverse opioid-related events. Ketamine is appealing as an opioid adjunct because of its lack of respiratory depression and potential prevention of hyperalgesia and central sensitization. We present a case in which a ketamine infusion was utilized over a 7-day period to provide rapid taper of a daily dose of 400 mg of morphine equivalents to less than one-third of that dose on discharge with unchanged pain levels and no symptoms of opioid withdrawal.
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Tricuspid valvectomy without replacement is an accepted treatment for drug-resistant endocarditis. The current intravenous drug abuse epidemic is leading to more occurrences of right-sided valvular endocarditis. ⋯ Our academic hospital has seen 3 such patients in the past year alone. We review the implications of this pathophysiology and discuss the anesthetic management of a 33-year-old woman with previous tricuspid valvectomy presenting for emergent abdominal surgery.
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Currently, no gold standard method exists for localization of an epidural catheter after placement. The technique described in this report uses pulsed-wave Doppler (PWD) ultrasound to identify intrathecal location of an epidural catheter. ⋯ A fluid aspirate was positive for glucose, reconfirming intrathecal placement. PWD is a potential tool that can be used to locate the tip of an epidural catheter.