Low-dose intravenous ketamine and clonidine for poor postoperative opioid responsiveness: a double blind randomized study.

In the immediate postoperative period, some patients present with pain that responds poorly to intravenous opioids. In a double-blind randomized study, we tested the hypothesis that administering small doses of intravenous ketamine (0.125 mg/kg) combined with clonidine (0.

Different anesthetic techniques associated with different incidences of chronic post-thoracotomy pain: low-dose remifentanil plus presurgical epidural analgesia is preferable to high-dose remifentanil with postsurgical epidural analgesia.

Objective: To investigate the relationships between 2 anesthetic techniques, or the extent of allodynia around the surgical wound, and the occurrence of chronic post-thoracotomy pain.

Design: Prospective, randomized study.

Setting: A single-institution, university hospital.

Combined ultrasound and nerve stimulation-guided thoracic epidural catheter placement for analgesia following anterior spine fusion in scoliosis.

Anterior spine fusion by thoracotomy is indicated for the treatment of idiopathic scoliosis. Although epidural (EP) analgesia represents the most effective way to provide adequate analgesia after thoracotomy, scoliosis patients have substantial anatomic variations that make EP catheter placement more difficult and often contraindicated. This case report describes a safe, effective technique for placing a thoracic EP catheter in a young patient undergoing anterior spine fusion surgery by thoracotomy.

Ketamine has no effect on bispectral index during stable propofol-remifentanil anaesthesia.

Background: Ketamine 0.15-1 mg kg(-1) decreases postoperative morphine consumption, but 0.5 mg kg(-1) is associated with an increase in the bispectral index (BIS) values that can lead to an overdose of hypnotic agents.