British journal of anaesthesia
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Comparative Study
Propofol reduces seizure duration in patients having anaesthesia for electroconvulsive therapy.
Twenty-five patients received either methohexitone 1.0 mg kg-1 or propofol 1.3 mg kg-1 to induce anaesthesia during two separate electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) treatments. A forearm was isolated before administration of suxamethonium 0.5 mg kg-1, so that unmodified seizure duration could be measured. ⋯ Median (quartile deviation) duration of seizure was reduced significantly after propofol (19.0 (9.0) s), compared with after methohexitone (33.0 (7.8) s). Therefore propofol may not be an appropriate anaesthetic for ECT because of its adverse effect on seizure duration.
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Ten obstetric patients received 17-20 ml of autologous blood through an extradural catheter after inadvertent dural puncture. The time interval from dural puncture to prophylactic extradural blood patch ranged from 90 to 660 min. One of the 10 patients developed a mild occipital headache, which required no further intervention.