Importance of a Team Effort in Success of Airway Surgery.

The thoracic surgeon occupies a unique position in the team of those who are involved in looking after surgical patients in need of airway operations. It may be for urgent and life-threatening situations as in tracheo-vascular fistula or critical airway obstruction. Or it may be semiurgent in the intensive care unit in patients on assisted ventilation requiring tracheostomy (open or percutaneous).

Recognition and Management of Life-Threatening Tracheovascular Fistulae and How to Prevent Them.

Formation of a fistula between trachea and a major artery or vein in the root of the neck threatens life quickly from combination of major external bleeding and hemorrhagic shock, and asphyxiation from flooding of the proximal airways with blood. This complication can occur after cervical tracheostomy open or percutaneous, tracheal resection, cervical exentration and anterior mediastinal tracheostomy, and laryngectomy. The recognition of its occurrence is clinical based on a high index of clinical suspicion.

A Randomized Comparison Between Ultrasound- and Fluoroscopy-Guided Sacral Lateral Branch Blocks.

Background And Objectives: This randomized trial compared ultrasound (US)- and fluoroscopy-guided sacral lateral branch (SLB) blocks. We hypothesized that US would require a shorter performance time.

Methods: Forty patients who required unilateral sacral lateral branch blocks for chronic low back pain were randomized to US or fluoroscopy guidance.

Real-Time Detection of Periforaminal Vessels in the Cervical Spine: An Ultrasound Survey.

Background And Objectives: Compared with the thoracic and lumbar spine, transforaminal epidural injections and medial branch blocks in the cervical spine are associated with a higher incidence of neurological complications. Accidental breach of small periforaminal arteries has been implicated in many instances. In this observational study, using ultrasonography, we surveyed the incidence of periforaminal bloods vessels in the cervical spine.

Evolution of thoracic surgery in Canada.

Background: Canada's contributions toward the 21st century's practice of thoracic surgery have been both unique and multilayered. Scattered throughout are tales of pioneers where none had gone before, where opportunities were greeted by creativity and where iconic figures followed one another.

Objective: To describe the numerous and important achievements of Canadian thoracic surgeons in the areas of surgery for pulmonary tuberculosis, thoracic oncology, airway surgery and lung transplantation.