Anesthetic Management for Cesarean Delivery in a Patient with a Gigantic Intracranial Tumor.

A 31-year-old G5P1 patient with unremarkable past medical history at 29 weeks of gestation was diagnosed with a gigantic left frontotemporal brain mass. Initial clinical management as an inpatient achieved an improvement in the symptoms. The patient and surgical team agreed to schedule a cesarean delivery at 32 weeks of gestation if no neurological deterioration was observed. Intraoperative course with general endotracheal anesthesia and bilateral transversus abdominis plane block was uneventful and promoted efficient postoperative pain control. Seven days after delivery, the patient underwent craniotomy for brain tumor resection. This report describes the anesthetic management of a patient with an intracranial tumor during pregnancy.

Comparison of wire reinforced tubes with warmed standard tubes to facilitate fiberoptic intubation.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To compare the ease of insertion of a warmed standard tracheal tube to that of a wire reinforced tracheal tube when placed over a flexible fiberoptic bronchoscope. DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial. SETTING: Tertiary care hospital. PATIENTS: 50 patients undergoing elective general anesthesia. INTERVENTIONS: Patients' tracheas were intubated with a flexible fiberoptic bronchoscope and had either a standard or wire-reinforced tracheal tube inserted. If resistance was met, the tube was withdrawn, rotated, and readvanced. This was repeated two times. If unsuccessful, the flexible fiberoptic bronchoscope was removed, and intubation was attempted with the other type of tracheal tube. MEASUREMENTS: The ability to advance the tracheal tube was determined. MAIN RESULTS: There were no demographic differences between the two groups. There was a similar ease of advancement of the two tracheal tubes. CONCLUSIONS: When performing elective flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopy for intubation, we recommend using the less expensive warmed standard tracheal tube.