Airway management of patients with craniofacial abnormalities: 10-year experience at a teaching hospital in Taiwan.

Background: Airway management for patients with craniofacial abnormalities poses many challenges. It potentially has a high rate of morbidity and even mortality.

Methods: We reviewed our experience in administering anesthesia to patients with a diagnosis of mucopolysaccharidosis or Pierre Robin sequence in the past 10 years (July 1998 to October 2008).

Rigid ventilation bronchoscopy under general anesthesia for treatment of pediatric pulmonary atelectasis caused by pneumonia: A review of 33 cases.

Pediatric pulmonary atelectasis caused by pneumonia is a common disease. If the mucus plugs or secretions occlude the bronchial trees and cannot be cleaned by coughing, suctioning, or vigorous respiratory and physical therapy, is rigid ventilation bronchoscopy (V-B) effective and safe as a therapeutic procedure in such patients? We collected 33 cases of pediatric pulmonary atelectasis that were treated by rigid V-B under general anesthesia for removal of the mucus plugs or foreign bodies. During the rigid V-B with lung lavage performed by experienced bronchoscopists, the oxygen saturation was maintained in good condition.

Tracheal intubation condition--a comparison between one minute after rocuronium alone, one minute after rocuronium combined with atracurium and one minute after atracurium with rocuronium at one minute priming interval.

Background: Rocuronium, a monoquaternary steroid analogue of vecuronium, is designed to provide a rapid onset of action. Experimentally, it has been shown that two non-depolarizing neuromuscular relaxants administered together can produce either a neuromuscular block of a size expected to be the sum of the individual doses (additive effect) or a larger neuromuscular block (synergistic effect). Experimental observations have suggested that during onset rocuronium acts synergistically with other nondepolarizing agents, but that at a steady state the combined action is additive.