Anaesthesia
-
There was a delay in making the correct diagnosis of tracheal intubation in a parturient who developed severe bronchospasm after intubation because we relied on the capnogram.
-
A new anaesthetic technique is described for thyroplasty. Thyroplasty was performed to restore the voice in unilateral vocal cord paralysis. ⋯ The required size of this wedge was determined by pre-operative computerized tomography scanning of the larynx. At this point the patient had to be awake and cooperative to allow repeated phonation to facilitate correct displacement of the vocal cord.
-
A brief questionnaire was sent to 231 clinical directors of intensive care units in England and Wales to investigate the use of percutaneous tracheostomy. There was a 76% response rate. Percutaneous tracheostomies were in use in 78.4% of units. ⋯ Overall, 78.4% thought that percutaneous tracheostomy was safe and 66.7% considered percutaneous tracheostomy to be the technique of choice for Intensive Care patients. Percutaneous tracheostomy is now a well-established technique. However, the limited use of fibreoscopy and the lack of long-term follow-up are areas of concern.