Anesthetic management for ascending aorta replacement in a patient who refused autologous transfusion for religious reasons.

We report on the anesthetic management of a 69-year-old female Jehovah's Witness undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass to replace the ascending aorta; the patient refused transfusion of stored autologous or allogeneic blood products for religious reasons. The strategy involved preoperative hematopoiesis with recombinant human erythropoietin and iron, intraoperative acute normovolemic hemodilution, the use of a cell-saver system, administration of high-dose tranexamic acid, controlled hypotension, avoidance of low body temperature, simplification of the surgery, and lower blood dilution during cardiopulmonary bypass.

Visual evaluation of fade in response to facial nerve stimulation at the eyelid.

Study Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the probability of visual detection of fade in response to train-of-four (TOF) stimulation, double-burst stimulation3,3 (DBS(3,3)), or DBS(3,2) at the eyelid in comparison to that at the thumb.

Design: This is a randomized single-blinded study.

Setting: The study took place at the University hospital.

Delayed recovery of vecuronium neuromuscular block in diabetic patients during sevoflurane anesthesia.

Purpose: To study recovery from vecuronium-induced neuromuscular block in diabetic patients during total iv or sevoflurane anesthesia.

Methods: 30 diabetic patients were assigned to diabetes mellitus (DM)-total iv anesthesia (TIVA); (n = 15) or DM-sevoflurane (S) groups (n = 15). Thirty healthy patients were divided into control-TIVA (n = 15) or control-S groups (n = 15).