Regional anesthesia and pain medicine
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Jul 2006
Lipid infusion accelerates removal of bupivacaine and recovery from bupivacaine toxicity in the isolated rat heart.
Infusion of a lipid emulsion has been advocated for treatment of severe bupivacaine cardiac toxicity. The mechanism of lipid rescue is unknown. These studies address the possibility that lipid infusion reduces cardiac bupivacaine content in the context of cardiac toxicity. ⋯ Lipid emulsion speeds loss of bupivacaine from cardiac tissue while accelerating recovery from bupivacaine-induced asystole. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that bupivacaine partitions into the emulsion and supports the concept of a "lipid sink." However, the data do not exclude other possible mechanisms of action.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Jul 2006
Letter Case ReportsUltrasound-guided femoral nerve block, the safest way to proceed?
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Jul 2006
Objective assessment of manual skills and proficiency in performing epidural anesthesia--video-assisted validation.
Demand is growing for objective assessment of manual skills and competencies of invasive procedures. The aim of this study was to validate an objective tool for assessing residents' skill in performing epidural anesthesia by use of a global assessment scale and a 3-scale, 27-stage checklist. We wish to demonstrate that this tool can differentiate operators with different levels of training. ⋯ The results of our study show that scores on a system that consists of a global-rating form and a task-specific checklist had a significant relation to the number of epidural insertions performed (i.e., experience). The interrater reliability of these assessment tools was very strong. Evaluation of technical skills by an objective tool under direct observation, as opposed to laboratory setting, may create a more reliable standard of assessment. Furthermore, residency programs could use these evaluations to identify deficiencies in teaching programs and trainees who require extra instruction.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Jul 2006
Case ReportsUrinary incontinence after bilateral parasacral sciatic-nerve block: report of two cases.
The authors describe the occurrence of urinary incontinence after bilateral parasacral sciatic-nerve blocks. ⋯ Given the anatomic relations between the sacral plexus and the autonomic and somatic afferent and efferent innervation of the bladder and urethra, the urinary incontinence observed in our 2 patients could be explained by loss of afferent activity by spread of the local-anesthetic solution to pelvic nerves, loss of the efferent innervation of the posterior urethral sphincter by spread of the local-anesthetic solution to the urethral branches of the hypogastric plexus, and loss of external urethral sphincter tonus by block of the pudendal nerves. Anesthesiologists should consider the possibility of occurrence of urinary incontinence when performing bilateral parasacral sciatic-nerve blocks.