A&A practice
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Case Reports
Extraluminal Use of a Pediatric Bronchial Blocker With Confirmation by Point-of-Care Ultrasound: A Case Report.
Lung isolation for pediatric thoracic surgery is especially challenging in a patient with chronic lung infection and need to protect the nonoperative lobes from the spread of infection during anesthesia and surgery. Typically, for pediatric thoracic surgery, a mainstem intubation or placement of an intraluminal bronchial blocker is sufficient for lung isolation. ⋯ In this unusual situation, to isolate the chronic lung infection and to provide the needed adequate operative conditions, endobronchial intubation of the right, nonoperative lung and placement of an endobronchial blocker into the left lower lobe bronchus were performed. Intraoperative point-of-care ultrasound was then used to confirm ventilation of the right lung segments and absence of air movement in the left upper lobe.
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Surgery requires many electrically driven devices. Three events occurred recently in an operating room (OR) suite circa the 1980s wherein circuit breakers tripped due to overloaded circuits. This led to us to (1) increase OR electric capacity; (2) record each instrument's power requirements, map their OR location, and determine when during surgery they were used; (3) provide users with instruction and diagrams into which outlet to plug each instrument. When introducing surgeries requiring devices, especially with high electrical power (current or amperage) demands, or renovating older or planning new ORs, it is important to provide ORs with sufficient electric current, circuits, and outlets.