Capnography during deep sedation with propofol by nonanesthesiologists: a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Propofol, a short-acting hypnotic drug, is increasingly administered by a diverse group of specialists (e.g., cardiologists, gastroenterologists) during diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Standard monitoring during sedation comprises continuous pulse oximetry with visual assessment of the patient's breathing pattern. Because undetected hypoventilation is a common pathway for complications, capnographic monitoring of exhaled carbon dioxide has been advocated. We examined whether the use of capnography reduces the incidence of hypoxemia during nonanesthesiologist-administered propofol sedation in patients who did not receive supplemental oxygen routinely. METHODS: An open, stratified, randomized controlled trial was conducted in 427 healthy adult women during minor gynecology procedures in an outpatient clinic in the Netherlands. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either standard respiratory monitoring (standard care) or standard respiratory monitoring combined with capnography (capnography group). To replicate usual clinical practice, capnography monitoring was performed by the same medical team that provided sedation. The primary end point was the incidence of hypoxemia, defined as oxygen saturations <91%. RESULTS: From April 2010 to January 2011, 427 patients were enrolled. In the capnography group, 206 patients and in the standard care group, 209 patients were analyzed. The percentage of patients with a hypoxemic episode was 25.7% (53 of 206) in the capnography group and 24.9% (52 of 209) in the standard care group, resulting in an absolute difference of 0.8% (-7.5 to 9.2%). CONCLUSIONS: We were unable to confirm an additive role for capnography in preventing hypoxemia during elective nonanesthesiologist-administered propofol (monotherapy) sedation in healthy women in whom supplemental oxygen is not routinely administered. Based on the confidence interval, the benefit of adding capnography is at most an absolute hypoxemia reduction of 7.5%, suggesting that adding it in this practice setting to the routine monitoring strategy does not necessarily improve patient safety in daily practice.

Splenic artery rupture during pregnancy concealed by a pancreatic lymphangioma: a rare co-occurrence.

A pregnant woman presented to a local hospital with abdominal pain and hemorrhagic shock. Emergency caesarean section ruled out an obstetric cause and revealed a large mass, interpreted as a hematoma, with active bleeding of unknown origin. Because of her poor clinical condition, the patient was admitted to our hospital. Computed tomographic findings were suspicious for bleeding originating from the splenic artery. Laparotomy confirmed the presence of a ruptured splenic artery. A splenic artery aneurysm-a relatively well known entity during pregnancy-was absent. Hemostasis was achieved by clipping the artery. A large pancreatic cystic mass, which was misinterpreted earlier as a hematoma, was surgically removed. The pathologic examination revealed a pancreatic lymphangioma, an uncommon benign tumor. The ruptured splenic artery was presumably related to the pancreatic lymphangioma and vascular changes caused by pregnancy. A splenic artery rupture in co-occurrence of a pancreatic lymphangioma is a unique presentation which has not been reported previously.