A&A practice
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Case Reports
Virtual Reality Treatment of Severe Neuropathic Pain in an Adolescent Child: A Case Report.
We describe virtual reality (VR) used as an effective intervention to treat severe chronic neuropathic pain in an otherwise healthy adolescent boy. The patient presented with severe pain and allodynia in the right foot after calcaneus extension surgery. ⋯ VR gaming intervention provided the patient with significant pain relief and substantial improvement in functionality. This case report details the VR intervention and its effect on the patient's severe, medically refractory pain syndrome.
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Airway obstruction during anesthesia is a common occurrence with potentially serious outcomes. Increasingly, patients are older, heavier, and more likely to have obstructive sleep apnea-all heightened risk factors for airway complications. ⋯ As a result, there is a need for airway devices that can stent open distal pharyngeal tissues to maintain adequate ventilation. To physically address this problem, the new distal pharyngeal airway (DPA) prevents airway obstruction and enables providers to maintain ventilation.
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A lightning strike is an extreme event with the highest mortality rate among electrical injuries. Death from a lightning strike is caused by either cardiac arrest or respiratory arrest. ⋯ If transoral intubation is unsuccessful, an emergency cricothyrotomy should be considered. Our case report describes an emergency cricothyroidotomy performed in a harsh environment on a mountain 2300 m above sea level on a patient with extensive burns of his supraglottic structures, after being directly hit by a lightning strike.