Anaesthesia and intensive care
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Persistent neuromuscular blockade is not uncommon in the recovery room and contributes to postoperative morbidity and possibly mortality. The use of neuromuscular monitoring and intermediate rather than long-acting neuromuscular blocking drugs have been shown to reduce its incidence. Clinically available methods of detecting and quantitating neuromuscular blockade are reviewed. The writer concludes that such monitoring should be routine when neuromuscular blocking drugs are used.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Apr 2002
The effect of selective brain cooling on intracerebral temperature during craniotomy.
In this study we investigated the effect of topical application of cool irrigation fluid on brain tissue temperature during craniotomy. Eight patients were given a standard general anaesthetic for craniotomy. Distal oesophageal and nasopharyngeal temperatures were measured continuously and systemic normothermia was maintained. ⋯ The average time to return to baseline temperature after cessation of irrigation was 5.3 +/- 1.5 minutes. Cooling the brain has a marked protective effect after brain injury, but systemic hypothermia can produce significant harmful effects. This study demonstrates that the use of cool irrigation fluid during neurosurgery is a simple and effective method of cooling the brain whilst minimizing the use of systemic hypothermia.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Apr 2002
Case ReportsElective awake intubation in a patient with massive multinodular goitre presenting for radioiodine treatment.
We present the management of the potential airway complications in a case of massive multinodular goitre treated with radioactive iodine. The patient's trachea was prophylactically intubated, using a fibreoptic technique, to prevent further airway compromise due to thyroid oedema following radioactive iodine treatment. ⋯ This approach avoided the considerable risk of thyroidectomy in a morbidly obese patient with airway obstruction. To the authors' knowledge this approach has not been previously described.
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A lumbar epidural catheter inserted in a 24-year-old woman for labour analgesia, and subsequently used for post-caesarean epidural analgesia, proved difficult to remove. After multiple attempts, the entrapped catheter was dislodged intact, revealing a knot near its distal tip. Knotting of an epidural catheter leading to entrapment is a rare complication of epidural catheterization.