Anaesthetic management of extra-pleural pneumonectomy and hyperthermic intrathoracic chemotherapy procedure.

Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a rare tumour with survival of 9-17 months after diagnosis. Radical surgical resection by extra-pleural pneumonectomy combined with hyperthermic intrathoracic chemotherapy has shown to improve patient survival and better microscopic tumour control. Anaesthetic management of this procedure is challenging due to the complex pathophysiological changes associated with prolonged duration of surgery, one- lung ventilation, haemodynamic instability due to major blood loss, temperature variations including heat loss during pneumonectomy and rapid rise in temperature during hyperthermic chemotherapy, cardiac arrhythmias due to exposure to heated chemotherapeutics, cisplatin toxicity and acid-base changes.

Residual neuromuscular blockade affects postoperative pulmonary function.

Background: Residual neuromuscular blockade (RNMB) is known to be associated with respiratory complications in the postoperative period after muscle relaxant usage. The authors hypothesized that RNMB causes reductions in pulmonary function test (PFT) parameters in the immediate postoperative period.

Methods: An open-label prospective randomized cohort study was conducted comparing reductions in PFT parameters due to RNMB among different neuromuscular blocking agents.