Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Jul 1996
Case ReportsTransient compartment syndrome of the forearm after attempted radial artery cannulation.
Radial artery cannulation for continuous intraoperative monitoring of arterial blood pressure is considered a safe procedure. One complication of arterial cannulation is hematoma formation at the time of insertion or removal of the catheter. Bleeding is usually self-limited or will stop with compression without significant sequelae, even in the anticoagulated patient. We describe a case of hematoma with a transient compartment syndrome of the forearm after attempts to cannulate the radial artery for intraoperative monitoring purposes.
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Arterial blood pressure and heart rate changes after afferent somatic sensory nerve stimulation are termed the "somatosympathetic reflex" (SSR). Inhibition of the SSR may partially represent an antinociceptive action. This investigation examined the actions of the volatile anesthetic, desflurane, on the SSR evoked by peripheral nerve stimulation. ⋯ Sciatic nerve stimulation also elicited increases in heart rate which were significantly attenuated by desflurane (control; 37 +/- 6 bpm versus 1.5 MAC desflurane; 0 +/- 2 bpm). These findings demonstrate that desflurane produces dose-dependent cardiovascular depression in rats and, despite previous reports of sympathoexcitation, desflurane significantly attenuated both excitatory and inhibitory types of SSR. The results of this study also support a potential antinociceptive action for this anesthetic.