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PURPOSE: Our aim was to determine the incidence of difficult intubation during pregnancy-related surgery at a high-risk, high-volume teaching institution. METHODS: Airway experience was analyzed among patients who had pregnancy-related surgery under general anesthesia from January 2001 through February 2006. A difficult airway was defined as needing three or more direct laryngoscopy (DL) attempts, use of the additional airway equipment after the DL attempts, or conversion to regional anesthesia due to inability to intubate. Airway characteristics were compared between patients with and without a difficult airway. In addition, pre- and postoperative airway evaluations were compared to identify factors closely related to changes from pregnancy. RESULTS: In a total of 30,766 operations, 2,158 (7%) were performed with general anesthesia. Among these, 1,026 (47.5%) were for emergency cesarean delivery (CD), 610 (28.3%) for nonemergency CD, and 522 (24.2%) for non-CD procedures. A total of 12 patients (0.56%) were identified as having a difficult airway. Four patients were intubated with further DL attempts; others required mask ventilation and other airway equipment. Two patients were ventilated through a laryngeal mask airway without further intubation attempts. Ten of the 12 difficult airway cases were encountered by residents during their first year of clinical anesthesia training. There were no maternal or fetal complications except one possible aspiration. CONCLUSION: Unanticipated difficult airways accounted for 0.56% of all pregnancy-related surgical patients. More than 99.9% of all obstetric patients could be intubated. A difficult airway is more likely to be encountered by anesthesia providers with <1 year of experience. Proper use of airway equipment may help secure the obstetric airway or provide adequate ventilation. Emergency CD did not add an additional level of difficulty over nonemergency CD.
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STUDY OBJECTIVE: In the initial description of the serratus anterior plane block (SAPB), both superficial and deep SAPB provided effective blockade. The purpose of this study was to investigate the difference in opioid consumption and postoperative analgesia between superficial and deep SAPB for patients undergoing mastectomy. DESIGN: Randomized prospective trial. SETTING: Academic hospital. PATIENTS: 64 women, >18 years of age, ASA I-III, undergoing single or bilateral mastectomy, with and without lymph node biopsy, with and without tissue expander reconstruction. INTERVENTION: Either superficial or deep SAPB by an ultrasound-guided technique in addition to multimodal analgesia. MEASUREMENTS: The primary outcome was opioid consumption in the first 24 h. Secondary outcomes were pain scores, satisfaction scores, incidence of PONV, length of stay and block performance time. RESULTS: Subjects who received a deep SAPB required 30% less oral morphine equivalents (OME) (113.5 mg vs. 147 mg, p = 0.009) and reported lower pain scores. There were no significant differences in satisfaction scores, incidence of PONV, LOS, or block performance time between the two groups. CONCLUSION: There was a significant difference in opioid consumption between the deep and superficial SAPB groups. Subjects in the deep SAPB group had lower pain scores at 12 h; however, the difference was not statistically significant at other time points. While both the superficial and the deep SAPB can be used for post-operative analgesia in patients undergoing mastectomy, our study suggests that the deep SAPB may improve analgesia to a greater degree than the superficial SAPB as shown through decreased opioid consumption of 30% over a 24-h period post-block. CLINICAL TRIAL NUMBER AND REGISTRY URL: clinicaltrials.gov: NCT03154658.