Management of Concomitant Severe Thermal Injury and ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction.

Acute coronary thrombosis is a known, but rare, contributor to morbidity and mortality in patients with thermal and electrical injuries. The overall incidence of myocardial infarction among burn patients is 1%, with an in-hospital post-infarction mortality of approximately 67%, whereas the overall mortality rate of the general burn patient population is from 1.4% to 18%.

Epidural block: technical aspects and complications.

In continuous epidural anaesthesia we rely heavily on the 'test dose' to confirm correct placement of the catheter. This is not always accurate and there are a number of new techniques designed to provide better information about epidural needle and catheter placement. These include: electrical stimulation of the catheter, use of ultrasound and the application of simple geometry.

A comparison of levobupivacaine 0.5% and racemic bupivacaine 0.5% for extradural anesthesia for caesarean section.

Background And Objectives: Bupivacaine is available as a racemic mixture of its enantiomers, dextrobupivacaine and levobupivacaine. Both in vitro and in vivo studies show that dextrobupivacaine has a greater inherent central nervous system (CNS) and cardiovascular toxicity than levobupivacaine. Clinical studies show levobupivacaine to have similar local anesthetic potency to the racemate.