Journal of anesthesia
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Journal of anesthesia · Apr 2016
ReviewReview of crisis resource management (CRM) principles in the setting of intraoperative malignant hyperthermia.
The practice of medicine is characterized by routine and typical cases whose management usually goes according to plan. However, the occasional case does arise which involves rare catastrophic emergencies, such as intraoperative malignant hyperthermia (MH), which require a comprehensive, coordinated, and resource-intensive treatment plan. ⋯ However, physicians can become expert in the global process of managing emergencies by using the principles of crisis resource management (CRM). In this article, we review the key concepts of CRM, using a real life example of a team who utilized CRM principles to successfully manage an intraoperative MH crisis, despite there being no one on the team who had ever previously encountered a true MH crisis.
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Journal of anesthesia · Apr 2016
Case ReportsLimitation in monitoring depth of anesthesia: a case report.
Although we describe a clinical situation that most likely occurs in hundreds of operatory rooms in the world, we report this case as provocation. It concerns an unexpected awakening from an appropriate depth of anesthesia, although the BIS monitor showed a BIS index of less than 50 for a prolonged period before and after the event. Approximately 30 min after induction of anesthesia, the patient had a hypothetic sudden arousal of consciousness, with spontaneous movements, facial muscle activation, intolerance to the tracheal tube, and tearing. ⋯ Were these events spinal reflexes to pain or stimulation although the cortex was still anesthetized? Maybe this is the more rational explanation. Was the patient awake but not aware? Is it possible that our patient experienced only a transient arousal from consciousness, and that he did not have recall because the arousal time was short and we blocked memory consolidation? The latter hypothesis provides an opportunity to discuss the evidence that at the moment there is no device to assess the depth of anesthesia. We also focus on the possibility of interfering with memory processing under anesthesia.
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Journal of anesthesia · Apr 2016
Comparative StudyComparison of general anesthesia and monitored anesthesia care in patients undergoing breast cancer surgery using a combination of ultrasound-guided thoracic paravertebral block and local infiltration anesthesia: a retrospective study.
The aim of this study was to compare post-anesthesia recovery time and the incidence of hypotension episodes during anesthesia in breast cancer surgery between general anesthesia (GA) and monitored anesthesia care (MAC) retrospectively. Both techniques were combined with ultrasound-guided paravertebral block (US-PVB) and local infiltration anesthesia (LIA). ⋯ MAC with US-PVB and LIA exhibited faster post-anesthesia recovery and a lower incidence of hypotension episodes during anesthesia than GA with US-PVB and LIA in breast cancer surgery.
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Journal of anesthesia · Apr 2016
Response to intravenous fentanyl infusion predicts subsequent response to transdermal fentanyl.
Prediction of the response to transdermal fentanyl (FENtd) before its use for chronic pain is desirable. We tested the hypothesis that the response to intravenous fentanyl infusion (FENiv) can predict the response to FENtd, including the analgesic and adverse effects. ⋯ The analgesic and side effects after intravenous fentanyl infusion can be used to predict the response to short-term transdermal treatment with fentanyl.
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Journal of anesthesia · Apr 2016
Case ReportsThe utility of anatomic diagnosis for identifying femoral nerve palsy following gynecologic surgery.
We describe a case in which an anatomic diagnosis was useful for diagnosing and estimating the cause of femoral nerve palsy following gynecologic surgery. A 49-year-old female received general and epidural anesthesia for radical ovarian cancer surgery. Although injection pain was noted in the left medial shin with 1 % mepivacaine administered as a test dose, the catheter was left indwelling because it improved her symptoms. ⋯ A spinal cord injury related to epidural anesthesia was suspected because the sites of sensory impairment and epidural injection pain were the same; however, the patient had greater weakness of the quadriceps muscle than the iliopsoas, and no other muscle weakness was observed. These findings and previous reports suggest that her femoral nerve palsy was caused by compression of the inguinal ligament from the self-retaining retractor and lithotomy position. Twenty months after surgery, her muscle strength had fully recovered.