-
Comparative Study
Venous air embolism and the sitting position: a case series.
- K Leslie, R Hui, and A H Kaye.
- Department of Anaesthesia and Pain Management, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria 3050, Australia. kate.leslie@mh.org.au
- J Clin Neurosci. 2006 May 1;13(4):419-22.
AbstractVenous air embolism is a potentially serious complication of neurosurgery that occurs more commonly when the patient is in the sitting position. In this study, we aimed to quantify the incidence of venous air embolism during neurosurgical procedures performed with the patient in the sitting position in our institution. We performed a prospective audit of venous air embolism in 100 consecutive patients who underwent neurosurgical procedures in the sitting position, as evidenced by a decrease in end-tidal carbon dioxide partial pressure of 5 mmHg or more within 5 min. The incidence of venous air embolism was 9% (95% confidence interval: 3.3-14.7%). These patients did not have a significantly higher rate of hypotension or desaturation. Our results suggest that the sitting position can be safely used in neurosurgery.
Notes
Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
- Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as
*italics*,_underline_or**bold**. - Superscript can be denoted by
<sup>text</sup>and subscript<sub>text</sub>. - Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines
1. 2. 3., hyphens-or asterisks*. - Links can be included with:
[my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com) - Images can be included with:
 - For footnotes use
[^1](This is a footnote.)inline. - Or use an inline reference
[^1]to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document[^1]: This is a long footnote..