Regional anesthesia and pain medicine
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Sep 2011
Comparative StudyGlutamate release and neurologic impairment after intrathecal administration of lidocaine and bupivacaine in the rat.
Local anesthetic-induced neurotoxicity is one of the potential causes of postspinal anesthesia neurologic injury. Many experimental and clinical studies have demonstrated that lidocaine is more neurotoxic than bupivacaine. The mechanisms of local anesthetic-induced neurotoxicity remain unclear. Glutamate is an excitatory amino acid and widely exists in the central nervous system. Overstimulation of the glutamate receptors may produce neuronal toxic effect. In this study, we used in vivo microdialysis to examine the glutamate release in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) after intrathecal lidocaine and bupivacaine injection. ⋯ Intrathecal lidocaine caused a concentration-dependent increase of the CSF glutamate release and postinjection neurologic impairment; these effects can be reversed by MK-801. However, intrathecal bupivacaine shows no influence. We suggest that glutamate may be involved in the pathogenesis of lidocaine-induced spinal neurotoxicity.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Sep 2011
Comparative StudyInterventional pain physicians' experiences of and attitudes toward surgical privileging.
No consensus guidelines exist on surgical privilege credentialing for nonsurgeons. We queried a group of academic interventional pain physicians about their experiences acquiring such credentials after training, how this process reflected their training, and their current attitudes toward both processes. ⋯ Experience doing implantation procedures during fellowship training and subsequent experience with hospital surgical credentialing seems to vary widely, even among interventional pain physicians associated with academic training programs.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Sep 2011
Review Case Reports Comparative StudyStroke, regional anesthesia in the sitting position, and hypotension: a review of 4169 ambulatory surgery patients.
Despite frequent incidence of hypotension, no cases of stroke were observed in this audit of 4,169 shoulder surgeries performed in the beach-chair position. Notably though, 97% of the cases were performed under brachial plexus block with intravenous sedation rather than a general or relaxant technique.
The authors estimate the upper limit incidence of stroke in the sitting position under regional anaesthesia as 1 in 1,429 (0.07%).
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Sep 2011
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyCatheter orifice configuration influences the effectiveness of continuous peripheral nerve blockade.
We investigated perineural catheter threading distance and orifice configuration during continuous interscalene analgesia. ⋯ These results suggest that multiorifice catheters provide superior intermittent bolus continuous peripheral nerve blockade compared with end-hole catheters. For anterolateral approach interscalene catheter placement, there is minimal benefit, either way, to 2.5- or 5-cm blind catheter advancement.