Chang Gung medical journal
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Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) has emerged as an innovative and popular procedure for the management of postpneumonic empyema in children refractory to a medical response. One-lung ventilation is required during VATS. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of intraoperative wire-guided endobronchial blockade (WEB) for achieving 1-lung ventilation during a thoracoscopic procedure for pediatric empyema. ⋯ VATS can safely and effectively be performed in children with a proper anesthetic technique. With the development and clinical use of this new device, the bronchial blocker tube proved to be effective and easy to use for establishing 1-lung ventilation in a pediatric population.
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Efficacy and adverse effects of patient-controlled epidural or intravenous analgesia after major surgery.
The purpose of this retrospective study was to determine whether epidural fentanyl-bupivacaine patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) was more efficacious and had fewer adverse effects than epidural or intravenous morphine PCA. ⋯ Patients receiving epidural fentanyl-bupivacaine PCA experienced better overall pain relief, while morphine PCA, either epidurally or intravenously, caused more side effects. It is considered safe to use continuous epidural PCA with fentanyl-bupivacaine in patients receiving major elective surgery.
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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the characteristics, management, and outcomes of disc battery ingestion in children. ⋯ Most cases of disc battery ingestion run uneventful courses. However, the ingestion of some disc batteries may be fatal or complicated with life-threatening events. If the battery impacts in the esophagus, emergency endoscopic management is necessary. Once in the stomach, the battery will usually pass through the gastrointestinal tract without long-term complications.
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Mini cardiac operative procedures with video-assisted endoscopic techniques for closure of ventricular septal defects (VSDs) in pediatric patients have become quite popular for cardiac surgery. A precise diagnosis is very important for determining the surgical approach, and evaluation by intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) plays a major role in confirmation of the preoperative diagnosis, residual defects, and the need to return to the bypass after repair. ⋯ Our study showed that, with refinement of surgical closure of VSD via video-assisted endoscopic techniques, intraoperative TEE provides valuable and accurate information for decision-making in surgical management, provides immediate assessment of surgical repairs, and prevents reintervention and the morbidity associated with residual flow.
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Magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) can provide spatially encoded metabolite information and improve tissue specificity in human brains. The major goal of this study was to evaluate the correlation of metabolite ratios measured by MRSI with histopathological grading of cerebral gliomas. ⋯ Proton MRSI can provide in vivo information about the metabolic status of cerebral gliomas, and the (Cho+Cr)/NAA ratio can discriminate different grades better than other metabolite ratios. However, substantial overlap of metabolite ratios among different severities of malignancy makes it impossible to confirm the WHO grade of a specific cerebral glioma by using clinical MRSI.