Articles: intubation.
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A 14-yr-old boy with fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) presented for surgery for bilateral division of his ossified masseter muscles. Patients with FOP may present problems to the anaesthetist, including difficulties with tracheal intubation, restrictive pulmonary disease and abnormalities of cardiac conduction. With our patient sedated the trachea was intubated using a fibrescope and anaesthesia was induced and maintained with nitrous oxide and enflurane in oxygen. Ventilation was controlled throughout surgery and recovery was uneventful.
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Smooth emergence from general endotracheal anesthesia is frequently complicated by coughing induced by stimulation from an endotracheal tube. Lidocaine and other local anesthetics have been shown to anesthetize important rapidly adpating stretch receptors in the dog trachea. With the aim of providing a reservoir for continuous lidocaine release to adjacent tracheal tissue, we examined the ability of clinically used concentrations of lidocaine to diffuse across a commonly used endotracheal tube cuff. ⋯ The highest concentration obtained was 17.49 +/- 2.03 micrograms/mL after 360 minutes. We conclude lidocaine diffuses across endotracheal tube cuffs in a fashion that may enable the cuff to serve a potentially useful role as a reservoir for local anesthetic. This in turn appears to have the potential to smooth emergence from general endotracheal anesthesia in those patients in whom tracheal stimulation may be a complicating factor.