Postoperative Thoracic Epidural Analgesia: Adverse Events from a Single-Center Series of 3126 Patients.

Purpose: Thoracic epidural analgesia (TEA) has been shown to reduce postsurgical morbidity and mortality; nevertheless, major and minor complications can occur. We report our 10-year experience with TEA and incidence of complications.

Patients And Methods: Patients received continuous infusion TEA (0.

Spread patterns and effectiveness for surgery after ultrasound-guided rectus sheath block in adult day-case patients scheduled for umbilical hernia repair.

Background And Aims: We conducted a prospective study to examine the local anesthetic (LA) spread and the effectiveness for surgical anesthesia of ultrasound (US)-guided rectus sheath block (RSB) in adult patients undergoing umbilical hernia repair.

Material And Methods: Thirty patients received at T-10 level a bilateral US-guided injection of 20 mL levobupivacaine 0.375% + epinephrine 5 μg/mL behind the rectus muscle to detach it from its sheath.

A very early stage of obstructive fibrinous tracheal pseudo-membrane formation.

As result of a short-term intubation (24 hours), we report a rare and poorly known complication: the formation of an obstructive fibrinous tracheal pseudo-membrane (OFTP). The diagnosis and therapy of OFTP were due to its spontaneous expectoration after a long asymptomatic time post extubation (four days): This is a very unusual event. A CT-scan of the chest performed 3 hours after intubation revealed the first step of pseudo-membrane developing.

Ultrasound-guided obturator nerve block: interfascial injection versus a neurostimulation-assisted technique.

Background And Objectives: Interfascial injection of local anesthetic under ultrasound guidance has been proposed as a new technique for performing an obturator nerve block. We hypothesized that interfascial needle placement could supplant nerve stimulation as the end point for local anesthetic injection during ultrasound-guided obturator nerve block after the division of the obturator nerve.

Methods: Fifty spinal anesthesia patients who had experienced unilateral adductor muscle spasm during transurethral bladder tumor resection were randomly allocated to receive either 5 mL of lidocaine 2% injected under ultrasound guidance into the interfascial plane between the adductor longus and the adductor brevis and between the adductor brevis and the magnus muscles (US group) or an injection of 5 mL of lidocaine 2% in combination with nerve stimulation after identification of the divisions of the obturator nerve (USENS group).