Anesthesia and analgesia
-
The purpose of this study was to investigate the incidence of technical problems encountered when performing continuous spinal anesthesia and the influence of catheter tip position on block height following injection of a hypobaric spinal anesthetic. Twenty-nine elderly patients undergoing hip surgery were studied. Lumbar puncture was performed with an 18-gauge Tuohy needle at the L3-4 (or L2-3) interspace. ⋯ Although threading difficulties were encountered in 4/28 cases, there was a 100% success rate in catheter insertion. One catheter displacement into the epidural space was noted. Twenty of twenty-eight catheters took a cephalad direction, 6 remained coiled in a horizontal position, and 2 took a caudal direction.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
-
Anesthesia and analgesia · May 1993
Fentanyl plasma concentrations maintained by a simple infusion scheme in patients undergoing cardiac surgery.
The ability of a simple infusion scheme for fentanyl to achieve and maintain one of two target concentrations of fentanyl in plasma was studied in 17 patients having cardiac surgery that required the use of moderate hypothermic cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). All patients received preanesthetic medication including morphine, a benzodiazepine, and/or scopolamine. Anesthesia was induced and maintained by one of two fentanyl infusion regimens: HIGH-FEN (n = 6), a priming infusion of 2.4 micrograms.kg-1 x min-1 for 20 min in combination with a continuous infusion of 0.3 microgram.kg-1.min-1 for the duration of the operation to produce a plasma fentanyl concentration of 20-25 ng/mL; or LOW-FEN (n = 11), priming and maintenance infusions of 2.4 and 0.15 micrograms.kg-1 x min-1 designed to produce a fentanyl concentration of 12-15 ng/mL of plasma. ⋯ The 11 patients receiving LOW-FEN had a plasma fentanyl concentration maintained below 20 ng/mL (range 13-17 ng/mL). Eight patients before and 10 patients after CPB required anesthetic supplementation for adverse hemodynamic or somatic responses. For comparison purposes, another eight patients received a single 75 micrograms/kg dose of fentanyl during 20 min for induction of anesthesia, and 7 of the 8 required supplemental anesthetic agents before and after CPB.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)