Tracheal deviation with phrenic nerve palsy after brachial plexus block.

We present a case of a woman who received a left single-injection supraclavicular brachial plexus block for analgesia to facilitate upper extremity orthopaedic surgery. Before tracheal extubation she desaturated, was noted to have a low tidal volume and reduced left-sided air entry on auscultation of the chest. A chest x-ray taken 1 h following tracheal extubation revealed elevation of the left hemidiaphragm and a rightward shift of the trachea and mediastinal structures, with no evidence of pneumothorax. Findings were in-keeping with phrenic nerve palsy complicating the brachial plexus block performed. The patient was asymptomatic and discharged home the next day following repeat chest x-rays. We believe this is the first report of tracheal deviation contralateral to the side of an elevated hemidiaphragm secondary to phrenic nerve palsy from a brachial plexus block.

The crossed-leg position increases the dimensions within the acoustic target window for neuraxial needle placement in term pregnancy: a prospective observational study.

INTRODUCTION: Neuraxial anesthesia in obstetric patients may be difficult to achieve due to anatomical changes in pregnancy. The crossed-leg position may help in optimizing patient position. We prospectively evaluated the utility of the crossed-leg position compared with a standard position using ultrasound measurements. METHODS: Thirty women with term singleton pregnancy admitted for vaginal delivery were recruited. Women with a history of spinal trauma or surgery, congenital spinal abnormality, advanced first stage of labor or a language barrier were excluded. Two anesthesiologists, blinded to each other's measurements, scanned each subject in the crossed-leg position and standard position. Measurements of the lengths of the posterior longitudinal ligament, ligamentum flavum and interlaminar distance were recorded at the L3-L4 interspace. Comfort level in each position was scored on a Likert Scale. RESULTS: Twenty-nine women completed the study (complete data n=28). Significant increases were observed in the lengths of the posterior longitudinal ligament (mean difference 2.2 mm, 95% CI 1.3 to 3.2; P <0.001), ligamentum flavum (mean difference 1.4 mm, 95% CI 0.7 to 2.1; P <0.001) and interlaminar distance (mean difference 1.4 mm, 95% CI 0.4 to 2.5; P=0.006) in the crossed-leg position. No significant differences in comfort were observed. CONCLUSION: We demonstrated a significant increase in the sonographically measured lengths of the posterior longitudinal ligament, ligamentum flavum and interlaminar distance in the crossed-leg position when compared with the standard position. Both positions were comfortable. Further studies should explore whether these findings translate clinically into easier needle placement in the crossed-leg position.

Onset of labour epidural analgesia with low-dose bupivacaine and different doses of fentanyl.

This study investigated the effects of different doses of epidural fentanyl on the time to onset of epidural analgesia in women in early labour. We hypothesised that onset of epidural labour analgesia (the primary outcome defined as time in minutes from completion of epidural bolus to the first uterine contraction with a numeric pain rating scale [NPRS] score ≤ 3) would be faster with 100 µg of fentanyl epidural bolus compared with 20 µg or 50 µg. Epidural labour analgesia was initiated with 20 µg of fentanyl (F20 group), 50 µg (F50 group) or 100 µg (F100 group) along with 10 ml bupivacaine 0.08% as the loading dose. We randomly allocated 105 patients, with 35 patients in each group. Median (IQR [range]) time to achieve NPRS ≤ 3 was 18 (11-30 [6-20]) min in F20, 10 (8-19 [4-30]) min in F50 and 10 (6-16 [3-30]) min in F100 groups. There was a significant difference in onset times comparing F100 with F20 (p < 0.001) and F50 with F20 (p = 0.007), but not significantly different comparing F100 with F50 (p = 0.19). The median (IQR [range]) time from the epidural loading dose to first patient controlled epidural analgesia bolus was 61 min (20-165 [20-420]) in F20, 118 min (66-176 [20-396]) in F50 and 150 min (66-214 [30-764]) in F100 groups. This was not statistically significant (p = 0.16) comparing the F20 with the F100 group. There were no significant differences in maternal side-effects, mode of delivery, patient satisfaction scores or neonatal Apgar scores between all groups. We conclude that the 50 µg and 100 µg fentanyl doses were associated with reduced onset times to effective analgesia compared with the 20 µg dose.

Anaesthetic management of a pregnant woman with carcinoid disease.

Carcinoid tumours are neuroendocrine in origin and release vasoactive substances. Carcinoid tumours may be associated with carcinoid syndrome in 2-5% of patients and result in haemodynamic instability, bronchospasm, volume and electrolyte imbalance, and hyperglycaemia. We present the anaesthetic management of a 29-year-old parturient with metastatic carcinoid tumour. Although our patient did not ultimately develop carcinoid syndrome during the peripartum period, it was important that we used a multidisciplinary team approach, with close monitoring of her antenatal progress, and planned epidural analgesia for labour and delivery.