A & A case reports
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Case Reports
Seizure After Abdominal Surgery in an Infant Receiving a Standard-Dose Postoperative Epidural Bupivacaine Infusion.
We present the case of an otherwise healthy 12-month-old girl undergoing repair of a giant omphalocele, who experienced a postoperative seizure attributed to accumulation of bupivacaine from an epidural infusion. Whereas a standard dose was used, this patient experienced temporary liver dysfunction postoperatively, presumably from elevated intra-abdominal pressures, predisposing her to toxicity after a prolonged infusion. This case illustrates how the type of surgery can influence the margin of safety of routinely used neuraxial local anesthetic doses in infants and young children.
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Development of subcutaneous emphysema after gastrointestinal endoscopy with general anesthesia presents a diagnostic conundrum. We discuss the management of a patient who experienced significant vomiting followed by neck and facial swelling with crepitus and shortness of breath after the endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography. The presence of respiratory distress usually suggests that head and neck subcutaneous emphysema is most likely associated with pneumothorax and/or pneumomediastinum. We discuss the prevention, differential diagnosis, and current management of tracheal tears including subcutaneous emphysema.
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We present 2 patients with Moyamoya disease undergoing revascularization surgery who developed transient intraoperative central diabetes insipidus with spontaneous resolution in the immediate postoperative period. We speculate that patients with Moyamoya disease may be predisposed to a transient acute-on-chronic insult to the arginine vasopressin-producing portion of their hypothalamus mediated by anesthetic agents. We describe our management, discuss pertinent literature, and offer possible mechanisms of this transient insult. We hope to improve patient safety by raising awareness of this potentially catastrophic complication.
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Comparative Study
Analysis of Resident Case Logs in an Anesthesiology Residency Program.
Our goal in this study was to examine Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education case logs for Stanford anesthesia residents graduating in 2013 (25 residents) and 2014 (26 residents). The resident with the fewest recorded patients in 2013 had 43% the number of patients compared with the resident with the most patients, and in 2014, this equaled 48%. ⋯ Also, there were residents with fewer than half as many for some of the required cases or procedure types. Some of the variability may have been because of the hazards of self-reporting.
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Case Reports
Anesthetic Management for Whole Lung Lavage in Patients with Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis.
Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP) is a rare disorder characterized by the deposition of lipoproteinaceous materials in the bronchoalveolar tree. Whole lung lavage was introduced in the 1960s and remains a treatment of choice for PAP. The main anesthetic challenge of whole lung lavage is maintaining adequate oxygenation during the procedure. We describe 2 interesting patients with PAP, the anesthetic challenges faced during the lung lavage, and discuss the management strategies adopted in each case.