Anesthesia progress
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Anesthesia progress · Jul 1988
Case ReportsManagement of a perforated endotracheal tube during orthognathic surgery.
Oral and maxillofacial procedures require nasotracheal intubation that often obscures the anesthesiologist's direct vision of the surgical field. Premature extubation of a damaged endotracheal tube frequently requires replacement and poses a potential risk to the patient. This case illustrates a technique for replacing a damaged endotracheal tube using a nasogastric tube inserted within the damaged tube to suction secretions, insufflate oxygen, and serve as a guide for placement of a new endotracheal tube.
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Anesthesia progress · Mar 1988
Pulse oximetry: evaluation of accuracy during outpatient general anesthesia for oral surgery.
Pulse oximetry has been shown to be accurate under steady state conditions. In this study, the accuracy of four pulse oximeters are evaluated and compared during outpatient general anesthesia for third molar extractions. The oximeters evaluated are the Nellcor N-100, the Ohmeda 3700, the Novametrix model 500, and the Bird 4400 portable pulse oximeter. ⋯ The Bird 4400 portable pulse oximeter proved to be the most accurate and reliably predicted arterial saturation under these conditions (y = 1.03x - 2.8, r = 0.85). The Novametrix model 500 pulse oximeter also demonstrated a high degree of accuracy by linear regression analysis, but displayed the lowest correlation coefficient (spread of data points) overall (y = 0.97x + 2.8, r = 0.80.) The Nellcor N-100 pulse oximeter also proved to be highly accurate. (y = 1.05x - 4.1, r = 0.84.) In contrast, regression analysis of the observed saturations obtained with the Ohmeda 3700 pulse oximeter revealed that this unit significantly underestimated arterial saturation (y = 1.20x - 19.6, r = 0.83.)This study demonstrates that despite the rigorous conditions imposed by outpatient general anesthesia for oral surgery, three of the pulse oximeters tested were linearly accurate in predicting arterial oxyhemoglobin saturation over the range of 70-100%. The Ohmeda 3700 was found to significantly underestimate arterial saturation.
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Nitrous oxide is an important and widely used anesthetic agent. However, during lengthy surgical procedures, significant amounts of nitrous oxide diffuse into the endotracheal tube cuff, causing sequelae that may include increased cuff pressures, tracheal trauma, increased postoperative discomfort, and cuff rupture. In this paper, two cases are presented in which the endotracheal tube cuff used to deliver this anesthetic agent ruptured after more than four hours of surgery. Two simple means of limiting the diffusion of nitrous oxide into the cuff and thus preventing this occurrence are described.
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Patients with a history of adverse reactions to a local anesthetic may often be incorrectly labeled as "allergic." Determining if a patient is allergic to a local anesthetic is essential in the selection of appropriate pain control techniques. Local anesthetic allergy testing may be performed safely and with reasonable accuracy by a knowledgeable practitioner. This paper presents guidelines for an allergy testing method.
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Succinylcholine is traditionally used as the muscle relaxant of choice for rapid induction sequence intubation. There are, however, many absolute and relative contraindications for the use of succinylcholine necessitating the need for an alternative muscle relaxant. This study was undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of pancuronium bromide for muscle relaxation in the rapid induction sequence in comparison to succinylcholine. ⋯ The results indicate that in experienced hands pancuronium bromide in a dose of 0.1-0.15 mg/kg is as an effective muscle relaxant for rapid induction sequence intubation as is succinylcholine. It is an acceptable alternative when succinylcholine is contraindicated. Intubating conditions are best 90 seconds after the administration of pancuronium bromide.