European journal of anaesthesiology
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Difficult intubation in obstetric units has been identified as a major contributory factor to anaesthesia related maternal morbidity and mortality. Availability of equipment for management of a difficult airway is associated with reduced maternal complications. The purpose of our survey was to describe the availability of difficult airway equipment in Irish Obstetric Units. ⋯ Irish Obstetric Units are well equipped according to the international guidelines for difficult intubation equipment. However, we believe that this situation could be further improved by training inexperienced anaesthetists in the use of the Intubating Laryngeal Mask and by the increased use of portable trolleys.
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Continuous spinal analgesia (CSA) offers considerable pain relief, and has been used in various procedures such as for surgery and cancer pain control. In Japan, portable and disposable infusion kits are increasingly employed for continuous epidural analgesia and CSA. In CSA, the use of a microcatheter is expected to reduce the incidence of spinal headache previously encountered with larger catheters. However, the flow rate of disposable infusion kits is reduced when used in conjunction with a microcatheter. ⋯ These results indicated that the use of a shorter microcatheter achieves a better flow rate during CSA.
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Letter Case Reports
General anaesthesia in a patient with motor neuron disease.