Subject(s)
Anesthesiology/instrumentation , Drug Labeling , Nitrous Oxide , Humans , Practice Guidelines as Topic , Time FactorsABSTRACT
A patient suffering from ankylosing spondylitis required surgical excision of a large anterior osteophyte of the cervical spine. Fibreoptic nasal intubation was difficult due to distortion of the airway by the osteophyte. This cause of difficult flexible fibreoptic intubation has not been described previously.
Subject(s)
Cervical Vertebrae/surgery , Intubation, Intratracheal , Spinal Osteophytosis/complications , Aged , Female , Fiber Optic Technology , Humans , Spinal Osteophytosis/surgery , Spondylitis, Ankylosing/complicationsABSTRACT
Two patients who underwent orthotopic liver transplantation and developed peroperative cardiac arrhythmias are presented. In one, the arrhythmias were refractory to treatment with anti-arrhythmic drug therapy until serum magnesium levels were restored to normal. The other patient had a low pre-operative serum magnesium level and developed atrial fibrillation on induction of, and during, anaesthesia. Patients undergoing orthotopic liver transplantation may be a group especially predisposed to hypomagnesaemia. The importance of monitoring serum magnesium levels in such patients who develop peroperative cardiac arrhythmias is emphasised.
