Cerebral fat embolism after bilateral total knee replacement arthroplasty: A case report / 대한마취과학회지

Fat embolism syndrome is a rare and potentially lethal complication most commonly seen in long bone fractures and intramedullary manipulation. The clinical triad of fat embolism syndrome consists of mental confusion, respiratory distress, and petechiae. This study reports a case of cerebral fat embolism syndrome following elective bilateral total knee replacement. After an uneventful anesthesia and initial recovery, the patient developed neurologic symptoms nine hours postoperatively.

The Attitudes of Anesthesiologists towards the Problems Associated with Pediatric Anesthesia

BACKGROUND: Anesthesiologist must be aware of the common problems that occur in pediatric anesthesia. The purpose of this survey was to collect information to help improve the quality of pediatric anesthesia by comparing the opinions of anesthesiologists that treat children and those that do not treat children. METHODS: A questionnaire surveying the attitudes of 103 anesthesiologists with regard to pediatric problems was analyzed. The questionnaire inquired about the number of years worked in field, the form of work and the responsibilities with regard to the pediatric anesthesia. Each question was rated from 1 (very infrequent) to 5 (very common) for the frequency of problems and from 1 (not importance) to 5 (very important) for the importance of the problem. Then we calculated the average of each item and combined the scores to obtain an average frequency and an average importance. RESULTS: The list of problems had high combined scores for preoperative anxiety (10.62), incision pain (9.59), postoperative agitation (9.53), hypothermia (9.40), and vomiting (9.30) for the pediatric anesthesiologist group. In addition, the problem list had high combined scores for propofol injection pain (11.25), preoperative anxiety (10.92), vomiting (10.17), hypothermia (9.44), and postoperative agitation (9.42) for the non-pediatric anesthesiologist group. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study showed a difference in the pediatric and non pediatric anesthesiologist groups for propofol injection pain. Differences were noted for the average importance (2.34 : 2.80) compared to the average frequency (3.93 : 4.01). The pediatric anesthesiologists regarded propofol injection pain to be less of a problem than did the anesthesiologists who did not care for pediatric patients.