Journal of clinical anesthesia
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Case Reports
Propofol and remifentanil total intravenous anesthesia for a patient with Huntington disease.
Huntington disease presents many challenges for the anesthetist. Of primary importance is that these patients are at increased risk of pulmonary aspiration. The use of short-acting anesthetic drugs should, therefore, be advantageous in promoting the rapid return of protective airway reflexes. We report the first documented use, to date, of propofol and remifentanil total intravenous anesthesia in a patient with Huntington disease and demonstrate its efficacy and safety.
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Case Reports
Entrapment of pulmonary artery catheter in a suture at the inferior vena cava cannulation site.
Entrapment of a pulmonary artery catheter (Swan-Ganz catheter) in the heart, vena cava, or pulmonary artery is a very rare and serious complication that may lead to life-threatening complications such as cardiac rupture, pulmonary artery rupture, cardiac tamponade, among others, if not recognized and treated early. We report entrapment of a Swan-Ganz catheter in the purse-string suture at the inferior vena cava cannulation site for a patient undergoing aortic valve replacement. This situation required a repeat sternotomy to release the pulmonary artery catheter.
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Case Reports
Emergency airway management with a laryngeal mask airway in a patient placed in the prone position.
Accidental extubation of a patient while placed in the prone position is a life-threatening, anesthesia-related complication. We describe a case of accidental extubation of the trachea during spine surgery in a patient placed in the prone position. We successfully managed this emergent problem by inserting a Laryngeal Mask Airway while maintaining the patient in the same position.