Regional anesthesia
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Regional anesthesia · Sep 1989
Case ReportsGuillain-Barre syndrome after obstetrical epidural analgesia.
Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS) occurred 24 hours post-partum following an obstetrical epidural anesthetic (OEA) procedure. Clinical diagnosis was confirmed by cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) findings and nerve conduction velocity studies. GBS is an immune mediated process. Because of short latency between the onset of symptoms and the performance of the epidural block, a cause and effect relationship between epidural block and GBS in this patient is unlikely.
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Regional anesthesia · Sep 1989
Continuous high thoracic epidural administration of bupivacaine with sufentanil or nicomorphine for postoperative pain relief after thoracic surgery.
In a prospective study, 40 patients who had undergone thoracotomy for lung resection were investigated. During operation, all patients received intravenous anesthesics, halothane and an initial dose of bupivacaine 0.5% with epinephrine 5 micrograms.ml-1 (5 to 10 ml) by thoracic epidural catheter. One hour after the initial dose of bupivacaine 0.5% with epinephrine, patients were divided in two groups for analgesia, the sufentanil group (50 micrograms sufentanil in 60 ml bupivacaine 0.125%) or the nicomorphine group (3 mg nicomorphine in 60 ml bupivacaine 0.125%) by a continuous epidural infusion (5 to 10 ml.h-1) for three days. ⋯ An inverse visual analogue pain scale (0 to 10 IVAS) showed mean scores above 7.5 for all patients during the three days. Scoring pain relief during exercise showed a significant difference in favor of the sufentanil group on Days 1, 2, and 3 (p less than 0.0008). The mean plasma bupivacaine level doubled every day, 138 ng.ml-1 on Day 1, 290 ng.ml-1 on Day 2, and 596 ng.ml-1 on Day 3.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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Regional anesthesia · Sep 1989
Case ReportsSpinal cord compression following labor and delivery with epidural analgesia.
Transient back pain is not uncommon during pregnancy and the postpartum period. Following an epidural anesthetic, back pain persisted in a postpartum patient beyond the expected period of soreness. Further diagnostic evaluation led to diagnosis and surgical decompression of a herniated thoracic disc.
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Several studies have indicated that the addition of sodium bicarbonate to solutions of local anesthetics to raise the pH closer to the pKa shortens the latency, increases the intensity, and prolongs the duration of the resultant neural blockade. However, the addition of too much bicarbonate will cause precipitation, and this may result in the injection of particulate free base along with the solution. The present study was carried out to determine the maximal amount of sodium bicarbonate that can be added to each of the amide local anesthetics without the formation of a precipitate, and, thus, to construct a pH adjustment schedule to simplify the alkalinization of local anesthetics in clinical practice.