Survey of patients whose lungs could not be ventilated and whose trachea could not be intubated in university hospitals in Japan.

Purpose: We conducted a survey to clarify the actual circumstances in which the lungs could not be ventilated and the trachea could not be intubated (CVCI).

Methods: A questionnaire was mailed to all the university hospitals in Japan, asking about CVCI they had experienced during induction of anesthesia in 1998, and before 1997.

Results: Answers were obtained from 60 of 83 institutes.

Facilitation of ischemia-induced release of dopamine and neuronal damage by dexamethasone in the rat striatum.

Glucocorticoids have been reported to aggravate ischemia-induced neuronal damage in both humans and experimental animals. Because an excess release of neurotransmitters is closely related to the outcome of ischemic neuronal damage, we evaluated the effects of dexamethasone on monoaminergic release and histological outcome. Changes in the extracellular concentrations of monoamines and their metabolites in the striatum produced by occlusion of the middle cerebral artery for 20 min were measured using a microdialysis high-performance liquid chromatography procedure, and the effects of intracerebroventricular administration of dexamethasone (10 microg) were evaluated in halothane-anesthesized rats.

[Is local anesthesia necessary for venipuncture?].

We evaluated the necessity of local anesthesia for the venipuncture pain in 27 healthy adult volunteers by using a visual analogue scale (VAS) from 0 to 10. The pain scales were measured three times: at the time of percutaneous intravenous cannulation (20 G polyurethane catheter) without local anesthesia as well as the skin infiltration with local anesthetics (0.5% lidocaine 0.

New pain following cordotomy: clinical features, mechanisms, and clinical importance.

Object: The clinical features, possible causes, and contributing factors associated with novel spontaneous pain following unilateral cordotomy were investigated to clarify the mechanism and clinical importance of this pain.

Methods: Forty-five patients who underwent cordotomy for severe unilateral cancer pain were included in this study. New pain occurred in 33 (73.

[Evaluation of efficiency of ACD-CPR and STD-CPR; a multi-institutional study].

We compared the efficacy of ACD-CPR and STD-CPR based on 64 multi-institutional reports. No significant differences were observed in the rate of restoration of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) and in cardiopulmonary parameters during CPR using the two methods. There were 5 cases in which cardiopulmonary parameters improved after switching from STD-CPR to ACD-CPR and, eventually, in two of them spontaneous circulation was restored.