RESUMO
Methemoglobinemia is an uncommon but potentially fatal disorder. Most cases have no adverse clinical consequence and require no treatment, but methemoglobinemia is often overlooked as a cause of low oxygen saturation, and often mistaken for the more common causes of hypoxia by anesthesiologists despite simple bedside tests that indicate the presence of this treatable abnormality. We present a 68-year-old female patient who underwent gastrectomy for advanced gastric cancer with bleeding. In the preoperative period, the patient showed cyanosis and oxygen saturation was 85% by pulse oximeter, but oxygen saturation by arterial blood gas analysis was 100%. After tracheal intubation, the methemoglobin level was 18.3%. Ascorbic acid and methylene blue were administered. During preanesthetic evaluation, the patient had not informed the anesthesiologist that she had been taking dapsone.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Severe respiratory variations of systolic arterial and central venous pressure (CVP) may increase the risk of embolic event in orthopedic patient. As airway obstruction during sedation can cause this respiratory variation, we evaluated the degree of variations of systolic blood (SBP) and CVP during airway obstruction period. METHODS: Fifteen females who had obstructed airway during total knee replacement (TKR) were included for the study. After regional anesthesia were established, SBP and CVP variations were analyzed according to the three periods; baseline, obstruction, and airway, respectively. Calculated CVP variables were similar to SBP variables as below: DeltaSBP = Expmax (maximal value at expiration) - Inspnadir (minimal value at inspiration), %DeltaSBP = (DeltaSBP/ Exp(max)) x 100. The frequencies of pulsus paradoxus (PP) and negative inspiratory CVP (NIC) were also measured. RESULTS: At obstruction period, DeltaSBP was 21.7 mmHg and 93.3% of patient had PP. Also, DeltaCVP was 19.3 mmHg and 100% of patient showed NIC. %DeltaCVP (140%) was larger than %DeltaSBP (16%). And DeltaCVP was inversely correlated with baseline and obstruction SBP and %DeltaCVP was also inversely correlated with baseline CVP at obstruction period. CONCLUSIONS: During airway obstruction in sedated TKR patients, variations of CVP are larger than those of SBP. So we have to monitor CVP continuously as well as SBP so as not to increase the possible risk of respiratory of variation.
RESUMO
A patient had respiratory difficulty and hoarseness following total thyroidectomy due to bilateral vocal cord palsy. The patient was a 60-year-old man who underwent total thyroidectomy for papillary carcinoma of the thyroid. He had no laryngeal symptoms prior to the operation. Anesthesia lasted 3.5 hours and was uneventful. Spontaneous respiration resumed after reversal of the neuromuscular blockade. After arriving at the post-anesthesia care unit, he complained of respiratory difficulty and hoarseness. We confirmed bilateral vocal cord palsy by fiberoptic laryngoscopy. It is necessary to perform a complete and thorough search for the underlying cause of vocal cord palsy.
