A & A case reports
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A 72-year-old woman with antiphospholipid syndrome underwent aortic valve replacement. Her preoperative activated partial thromboplastin time was 61.7 seconds and activated clotting time was 219 seconds. ⋯ We applied rotational thromboelastometry (ROTEM) to diagnose residual heparin using the INTEM/HEPTEM clotting time ratio. The HMS and ROTEM are useful for heparin-protamine control in antiphospholipid syndrome.
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Malignant Hyperthermia (MH) is a life-threatening biochemical process of hypermetabolism brought about in susceptible individuals by a triggering drug or event. Type A aortic dissections are surgical emergencies requiring cardiopulmonary bypass and frequently deep hypothermic circulatory arrest. ⋯ However, no known triggering agent had been administered. Eventually, the unique physiologic changes of cardiopulmonary bypass provided strong support for the diagnosis of MH and dantrolene was administered, effectively treating the episode.
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Jeune syndrome is a rare autosomal-recessive skeletal disorder. Anesthetic management of these patients is often difficult because of thoracic and lung hypoplasia. ⋯ The continuous positive airway pressure should have been titrated to effective tidal volume during preoxygenation to recruit the patient's functional residual capacity and to prevent desaturation. During tracheotomy, volume-controlled ventilation with a high respiratory rate and sufficient inspiratory time effectively improved the patient's respiratory status.
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Modern anesthesia workstations display capnography, flow-time, and pressure-time waveforms in real time. We observed that at certain ventilator settings (10 breaths/min) on Dräger workstations, the expiratory phase of the capnograph overlaps both the inspiratory and the expiratory phases of ventilation. This discrepancy disappears at respiratory rates of 16 breaths/min. ⋯ This again becomes asynchronous once the respiratory rate is increased to >18 breaths/min. Such an artifact may not affect the patient's safety in most cases but may mislead clinicians when synchrony between flow/pressure and capnography is needed for diagnostic purposes. We wish to share this discrepancy with clinicians and notify the manufacturer so that potential solutions may be found.