-
Anesthesia and analgesia · Apr 2001
Clinical TrialThe effects of thoracic epidural analgesia with bupivacaine 0.25% on ventilatory mechanics in patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
- E M Gruber, E M Tschernko, M Kritzinger, E Deviatko, W Wisser, D Zurakowski, and W Haider.
- Department of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia & Intensive Care Medicine, University of Vienna, Austria.
- Anesth. Analg. 2001 Apr 1;92(4):1015-9.
UnlabelledOptimal analgesia is important after thoracotomy in pulmonary-limited patients to avoid pain-related pulmonary complications. Thoracic epidural anesthesia (TEA) can provide excellent pain relief. However, potential paralysis of respiratory muscles and changes in bronchial tone might be unfavorable in patients with end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Therefore, we evaluated the effect of TEA on maximal inspiratory pressure, pattern of breathing, ventilatory mechanics, and gas exchange in 12 end-stage COPD patients. Pulmonary resistance, work of breathing, dynamic intrinsic positive end-expiratory pressure, and peak inspiratory and expiratory flow rates were evaluated by assessing esophageal pressure and airflow. An increase in minute ventilation (7.50 +/- 2.60 vs 8.70 +/- 2.10 L/min; P = 0.04) by means of increased tidal volume (0.46 +/- 0.16 vs 0.53 +/- 0.14 L/breath; P = 0.003) was detected after TEA. These changes were accompanied by an increase in peak inspiratory flow rate (0.48 +/- 0.17 vs 0.55 +/- 0.14 L/s; P = 0.02) and a decrease in pulmonary resistance (20.7 +/- 9.9 vs 16.6 +/- 8.1 cm H(2)O. L(-1). s(-1); P = 0.02). Peak expiratory flow rate, dynamic intrinsic positive end-expiratory pressure, work of breathing, PaO(2), and maximal inspiratory pressure were unchanged (all P > 0.50). We conclude that TEA with bupivacaine 0.25% can be used safely in end-stage COPD patients.ImplicationsThoracic epidural anesthesia with bupivacaine 0.25% does not impair ventilatory mechanics and inspiratory respiratory muscle strength in severely limited chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients. Thus, thoracic epidural anesthesia can be used safely in patients with end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
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:
![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
- 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.
.