The Journal of bone and joint surgery. American volume
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J Bone Joint Surg Am · Apr 1986
Case ReportsDelayed paraplegia complicating sublaminar segmental spinal instrumentation.
The cases of two patients with delayed paraplegia after segmental spinal instrumentation with sublaminar wiring are reported. Both patients had complex spinal deformities and had transient neural deficits after the first-stage procedure of anterior release and spine fusion. They had uneventful spinal-cord monitoring during the second-stage procedure of posterior instrumentation and fusion, and function of the lower extremities was present immediately after that operation. ⋯ Considering our reproducible and reliable experience (no false-negative results) with spinal cord monitoring in 307 operations, we propose that the delayed onset of paraplegia resulted from a progression of ischemic and edema-producing events that had not developed sufficiently intraoperatively to be reflected by the monitoring. The paraplegia became evident only when the subarachnoid space was obstructed because of progressive postoperative neural edema. The presence of sublaminar implants in narrow, kyphotic segments of the spinal canal probably exacerbated the neural irritation by dural impingement, which was seen myelographically.
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J Bone Joint Surg Am · Mar 1986
Comparative StudyTotal hip arthroplasty in Jehovah's Witnesses without blood transfusion.
One hundred patients who were Jehovah's Witnesses underwent total hip replacement without transfusion, of which eighty-nine procedures were performed under hypotensive anesthesia. Of these eighty-nine patients, sixty-five had not had previous hip surgery and sustained an average intraoperative blood loss of 450 milliliters. This was a 43 per cent reduction in blood loss as compared with a control group of patients, who were not Jehovah's Witnesses and who had total hip replacement under normotensive anesthesia. ⋯ Eleven Jehovah's Witnesses who were not candidates for hypotensive anesthesia had a total hip replacement under normotensive techniques. Factors other than hypotensive anesthesia that aided in reducing blood loss were careful surgical technique, meticulous hemostasis, and well planned surgery. There were six complications, one of which was possibly related to hypotensive anesthesia, and no deaths.