Journal of clinical and diagnostic research : JCDR
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To ensure the utmost safety, it is recommended that prior checking the machine and breathing systems as mandatory. Certain factors beyond the control of the anaesthesiologist lead to the operative room incidences jeopardizing the anaesthetised patient which otherwise cannot be prevented by prior custom checking. ⋯ In above events, a prior checking the machine or tracheal tube, could not prevent its occurrence. However, use of a deputy of the objects resulted in uneventful anaesthesia.
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Local anaesthetic systemic toxicity (LAST) is one of the most dreadful complications after local anaesthetic (LA) use and it is very difficult to manage. The diagnosis of LAST is purely clinical and its presentation is usually obscured in a sedated or anaesthetized patient. A 25-year-old male patient undergoing laparotomy for acute duodenal perforation under general anaesthesia developed seizures after epidural administration of 0.5% bupivacaine. ⋯ Although, lipid rescue is recommended for LAST, our patient was managed without its use. We, therefore, recommend that utmost care and vigilance should be exercised while using local anesthetics as there is no perfectly accurate method to rule out intravascular administration of LA. Even, if LA is correctly used, LA is detected in plasma due to its systemic absorption from injection site.
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Electrolyte abnormalities are one of the common causes of morbidity and mortality in critically ill patients. The turnaround time for electrolyte reporting should be as low as possible. Electrolytes are measured conventionally in serum obtained from venous blood by electrolyte analyser which takes 20 to 30 min. Point of care analysers are now available where in electrolytes can be measured in arterial blood within 5 min. This study was done to study the agreement of arterial sodium and arterial potassium with venous sodium and venous potassium levels. ⋯ Arterial sodium and arterial potassium can be used instead of venous sodium and venous potassium levels in management of critically ill patients.