Pain Management of Malignant Psoas Syndrome Under Epidural Analgesia During Palliative Radiotherapy.

Malignant psoas syndrome is a rare malignant condition presenting as lumbosacral plexopathy and painful fixed flexion of the hip. Metastasis to the psoas muscle is observed, which damages the nerve bundles in the lumbosacral plexuses. The syndrome presents as refractory lower back pain with several other neurological symptoms. The pain is difficult to control because it is a mixture of nociceptive and neuropathic pain, which indicates that treatment requires a versatile approach. The authors report a case of severe back pain caused by metastasis to the psoas muscle of advanced gastric cancer in a patient who underwent palliative radiotherapy under epidural analgesia. Despite conventional analgesics and subcutaneous oxycodone, he had difficulties in maintaining supine position because of the back pain and had a problem to receive radiotherapy, which required him to stay still in the same position during the treatment. By epidural analgesia, he could remain in supine position and complete radiotherapy without increasing opioid administration. His back pain was improved after the radiotherapy. Epidural analgesia is an effective treatment choice for a patient who is unable to keep the position during palliative radiotherapy.

[General anesthesia for a patient with post-polio syndrome].

We gave anesthesia for a patient with post-polio syndrome undergoing laparoscopic sigmoid colectomy. She is a 68-year-old woman and had been diagnosed as post-polio syndrome since she was 55 years of age. Before the operation, paralysis was observed in her right leg. After inducing anesthesia using propofol, muscle relaxation was obtained by rocuronium bromide for intubation. Remifentanil was used during the operation, and good pain relief was obtained by iv-PCA (fentanyl) after operation.

[General anesthetic management of a patient with spinal muscular atrophy type III].

We report a 61-year-old woman (weight 49 kg, height 156 cm) with Kugelberg-Welander disease who was scheduled for bilateral mastectomy under general anesthesia. We administered rocuronium 10 mg (0.20 mg x kg(-1)) for tracheal intubation. After 80 min, train-of-four ratio (TOFR) was 46%. During the operation, we did not administer rocuronium. After surgery, TOFR was 62%. Therefore, we administered sugammadex 100 mg (2 mg x kg(-1)). After 4 min, TOFR became above 90%, and the patient was extubated. There was no respiratory distress, muscle weakness, or neurologic untoward event after the use of sugammadex in the postoperative period. Sugammadex was effective in reversing rocuronium induced neuromuscular block in a patient with Kugelberg-Welander disease.