Ethylene oxide allergy in patients on hemodialysis waiting for kidney transplantation: logistical nightmare or challenge? A case report.

Ethylene oxide (EO) is widely used as a sterilization gas for heat-sensitive devices. In EO-sensitized patients, this type of sterilization can cause rare but major allergic reactions such as hives, rash, asthma, or anaphylactic shock. Hemodialysis patients in particular are at risk of developing hypersensitivity to EO.

Effects of epidural clonidine and neostigmine following intrathecal labour analgesia: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Background: The limited duration of spinal labour analgesia combined with problems associated with maintenance of epidural analgesia, have prompted the search for combinations that could prolong spinal analgesia. A randomised, double-blind trial was carried out to test the hypotheses (a) that initial spinal labour analgesia is prolonged by administering clonidine and neostigmine epidurally whilst (b) the hourly local anaesthetic consumption is reduced.

Methods: Seventy labouring patients received spinal analgesia with ropivacaine and sufentanil.

Pulmonary gas exchange is well preserved during robot assisted surgery in steep Trendelenburg position.

Introduction: During robot assisted hysterectomies and prostatectomies, surgical exposure demands the application of a CO2 pneumoperitoneum with a very steep Trendelenburg position (40 degrees). The extent to which oxygenation and ventilation might be compromised intra-operatively remains poorly documented.

Methods: Dead-space ventilation and venous admixture were determined in 18 patients undergoing robot assisted hysterectomy (n = 6) or prostatectomy (n = 12).

Ten years of experience with accidental dural puncture and post-dural puncture headache in a tertiary obstetric anaesthesia department.

Background: Accidental dural puncture (ADP) and post-dural puncture headache (PDPH) are important complications of obstetric regional anaesthesia.

Methods: Between January 1997 and October 2006 in our tertiary obstetric referral centre 17 198 neuraxial blocks were recorded; 965 epidural, 16193 combined spinal-epidural and 40 spinal. Records of all parturients who experienced either ADP or PDPH were reviewed.

Prevention of postoperative hypotension following spinal anesthesia for TURP: a double-blind randomized controlled trial comparing ephedrine with placebo.

Spinal hypotension (SH) is a common side effect of spinal anesthesia and may also occur after the surgical procedure. In this double-blinded, placebo-controlled, randomised clinical trial fifty patients undergoing transurethral prostatectomy under spinal anesthesia received 10 mg of ephedrine IV before being transferred from the operating table into their bed after the procedure, whereas fifty controls received saline IV. The number of per- and postoperative hypotensive episodes and vasopressor use, time delay between the administration of the study medication and the first hypotensive episode, level of spinal blockade at the start of surgery, pre- and postoperative hemoglobine and sodium concentration, cardiovascular co-morbidity and chronic medication were registered.