Journal of clinical anesthesia
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Case Reports
Persistent cauda equina syndrome after cesarean section under combined spinal-epidural anesthesia: a case report.
A 29-year-old pregnant woman was delivered by cesarean section under a combined spinal-epidural anesthesia. Thirty hours after an uneventful surgery, she complained of weakness in her lower extremities and developed fecal and urinary incontinence. ⋯ Most of the symptoms resolved within a few days, but right side foot drop persisted for 2 years after the procedure. Because there was no other etiologies being noticed, we hypothesized that the hyperbaric bupivacaine neurotoxicity was likely to be the cause for this neurologic deficit.
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To describe the use and adverse effects of chloroprocaine for epidural analgesia in young infants for infusion durations greater than 3.5 hours. ⋯ Epidural 1% chloroprocaine, in doses of 0.4-3 mL/h (1.5-6.1 mg/kg per hour), was well tolerated in both mechanically ventilated and spontaneously breathing infants for up to 96 hours with no identified adverse effects or tachyphylaxis.
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Preemptive mapping of the airway is a useful adjunct to conventional clinical assessments when airway management planning for patients with complex head and neck pathology. Nasendoscopy is frequently used for this purpose but is also invasive and poorly tolerated in a subset of patients and, even in expert hands, may not allow complete visualization of the glottis and subglottic structures. ⋯ To highlight how well virtual endoscopy correlates to conventional fibreoscopy, we compare both of these assessment tools in 3 patients with glottic, subglottic, and multilevel airway pathologies. Virtual endoscopy represents a unique, noninvasive, safe, and accurate airway assessment and educational resource, which warrants further exploration.
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Case Reports
Significantly prolonged spinal anesthesia with the addition of dexamethasone: a case report.
The purpose of the study is to highlight that prolonged blocks with spinal anesthesia are not usually due to neurologic defects. Consent for data publication was obtained. A 35-year-old female patient with right upper tibial chondrosarcoma was planned to undergo excision and reconstruction with a free vascularized fibular graft. ⋯ We present a case of major microscopic surgery done over 13 hours with a single shot of spinal anesthesia in a 35-year-old female patient. Complete recovery of sensory and motor blocks has been after 20 hours. We also review other cases of unusually prolonged spinal blocks and the possible differential diagnosis for that.