A&A practice
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Regional anesthetic blocks, especially in-dwelling catheters, are infrequently used in neonates and infants. The following report describes a neonate with a gangrenous right upper extremity requiring multiple painful debridements over several weeks. ⋯ After the initial procedures, bolus doses of a local anesthetic agent provided surgical anesthesia for dressing changes, thus obviating the need for multiple general anesthetics. This case demonstrates the potential efficacy of regional techniques to both treat pain and limit anesthetic exposures in neonates.
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An ultrasound-guided thoracic paravertebral nerve block was administered for left-sided abdominal pain. Lidocaine 0.4% (9.5 mL) was injected. ⋯ It was postulated that the local anesthetic was injected into the cyst, which communicated with the subarachnoid space. This case report demonstrates the anatomic variations of nerve root sheath cyst sites and the risk of injection into intranerve root sheath cysts during interventional procedures.
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Case Reports
Never Say Never: The Use of Nitric Oxide in Patients With Obstructed Pulmonary Veins: A Case Report.
Pulmonary vein stenosis (PVS) is a progressive disease with pulmonary hypertension (PH) as a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Traditional management of PH with inhaled nitric oxide (iNO) is typically avoided in PVS patients because, while iNO may reduce pulmonary vascular resistance, PH persists as pulmonary blood flow increases in the presence of a downstream resistive lesion. We report 3 cases with primary PVS and PH in which iNO was used to successfully decrease mean pulmonary artery pressures with clinical improvement. Based on this experience, we suggest that iNO can be used to treat PH in select patients with PVS.
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There has been a significant shift away from epidural analgesia after radical cystectomy within an enhanced recovery program. Alternative techniques reported including continuous erector spinae plane analgesia require supplemental systemic morphine. ⋯ Median length of hospital stay was reduced by a third. The novel analgesic regimen may have the potential to enhance recovery after open radical cystectomy.
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We describe the cases of 2 patients free from mechanical ventilation after a cardiac surgery with systemic venous congestion from right ventricular (RV) failure. Management of these patients included RV preload reduction with diuretics and RV afterload reduction with inhaled pulmonary vasodilators. Noninvasive combination of inhaled epoprostenol and inhaled milrinone through the AirLife filtered nebulizer system (CareFusion) was used. Reduction of splanchnic venous congestion was assessed by Doppler portal flow pulsatility.