Masui. The Japanese journal of anesthesiology
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Epidural anesthesia is widely used in patients who undergo thoracic, abdominal or lower extremity surgeries and generally considered useful for perioperative analgesic management. Epidural catheterization is often associated with some complications including misplacement of the catheter. Epidural catheters are known to be misplaced or migrate into subarachnoidal space, subdural space, vessels and thoracic cavities ; however, frequency, predominant sites of misplacement, and the timing of detection are not fully understood regarding the misplacement of the catheters. ⋯ Epidural catheters were misplaced to subarachnoid space in 6 cases and thoracic cavity in 2 cases. The misplacement of the catheters was found before the induction of general anesthesia in 2 patients, after induction of general anesthesia in 1 patient, during surgical procedure in 3 patients, and postoperatively in 2 patients. Since misplacement of epidural catheters can occur at any moment during perioperative period, continuous monitoring and observation of patients seem to be very important to prevent and minimize the adverse events related to the misplacement of epidural catheters.
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Comparative Study
[Comparison of thoracoscopic and open repair of esophageal atresia with tracheoesophageal fistula].
With the increasing use of endoscopic surgery in children, several papers report the comparison between the thoracoscopic and open repair of the neonatal esophageal atresia with tracheoesophageal fistula (EA/TEF). Most of them focus on the duration and outcome of the surgery with few focusing on the neonatal tolerance to the thoracoscopic procedure and intraoperative anesthetic management. ⋯ Hypercapnia and acidosis were severer in thoracoscopy group. Careful perioperative adjustment of inspired oxygen fraction and ventilator setting is required.
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A 60-year-old morbidly obese woman (150 cm, 112 kg, BMI 49.8) underwent total knee replacement under general anesthesia combined with sciatic nerve block and continuous femoral nerve block. Following induction of general anesthesia and tracheal intubation, the sciatic nerve was blocked using the popliteal approach with the patient in the supine position. Then the femoral nerve block was performed, followed by perineural catheter placement for postoperative continuous local anesthetic infusion. ⋯ Postoperatively 0.15% ropivacaine was infused at the rate of 5 ml x hr(-1) for 60 hours through the femoral catheter, which provided satisfactory pain relief in combination with scheduled loxoprofen administration. No block-related complications were noted. Our experience suggests that the ultrasound-guided technique may prove useful to facilitate safe and accurate block when technical difficulties are anticipated with anatomic landmark-based approaches.
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A case was presented of a 5-year-old girl who suffered an accidental dural puncture during placement of an epidural catheter under general anesthesia for orthopedic surgery. She complained of headache 4 days after the operation, which was relieved on supine position but became worse on sitting position. ⋯ The reported incidence of epidural blood patch for post dural puncture headache following accidental dural puncture in children is low. We outline this case and the consideration for management for epidural blood patch in pediatric patients.
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Helmet is a new device of non-invasive continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). Few cases have been described about usage of the helmet in children. We describe successful treatment of a child with respiratory distress using the helmet-delivered non-invasive CPAP. ⋯ Helmet CPAP started at initial settings of CPAP 8 cm H2O and FI(O2) 0.7, improved oxygenation. Pa(O2)/FI(O2) ratio increased from 106 to 316, and chest X-rays showed a marked improvement (15 hour after NPPV initiation). The helmet offers important advantage: the possibility of fitting to any children, regardless of any facial or external anomalies.