[Nasogastric tube syndrome suspected at the end of anesthesia].

The case of a patient who might have developed nasogastric tube syndrome at the end of anesthesia is presented. A 62-year-old woman was scheduled for a general anesthesia with fiberscopic oro-tracheal intubation because of a predicted difficult airway. After the smooth and gentle intubation without any trauma and injury, a nasogastric tube was inserted blindly. At the end of surgery, the anesthesiologists observed the pharyngeal tissue and found significant edema on the epiglottis and arytenoids. Extubation was cancelled and the patient was moved to an intensive care unit for respiratory management. On the next day, fiberscopic observation revealed a complete recovery and the endotracheal tube was removed without any difficulty. We strongly suspected the pharyngeal injury as acute nasogastric tube syndrome and an attention to this rare complication is required by anesthesiologists.

[Successful extubation in a patient with alacepril-induced tongue angioedema].

We describe a case of marked swelling of the tongue in a patient after a long prone position neurosurgery, who was treated for hypertension with alacepril. The tongue was not congestive and history of taking an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor suggested an alacepril-induced angioedema. The day after surgery, the patient's tongue was still swollen; however, fibrescopic observation of the larynx and pharynx through the nasal cavity revealed that the edema was limited to anterior tongue, and the oral cavity and oropharynx were not involved. Although, tongue angioedema was observed, we introduced a 3-mm tube exchanger to the patient's trachea and removed the endotracheal tube. The ventilation and oxygenation were maintained, and 30 min later, the exchanger was detached. On the second postoperative day, the angioedema disappeared completely and the patient was transferred to a ward without any complication.

Nafamostat prevents hypothermia and improves survival time after administration of lipopolysaccharide in a mouse surgical model.

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is an endotoxin known to induce disseminated intravascular coagulation and multiple organ failure followed by septic shock in animals. Nafamostat is a synthetic protease inhibitor with anticoagulant effects. This study investigated the effect of systemic administration of nafamostat on thermogenic homeostasis and survival time in a mouse surgical model. Male C57Bl/6 mice were anesthetized with sevoflurane and implanted with intraabdominal telemetry transmitters. Following the surgery, three groups of animals were administered Escherichia coli LPS (0127: B8) subcutaneously at doses of 0.3, 1.0, or 3.0 mg kg(-1), and one group received saline without LPS. Three other groups received 3 mg.kg(-1) LPS with 1, 3, or 10 mg kg(-1) of nafamostat. In another group 10 mg kg(-1)1 of nafamostat only was administered. The times to the onset of hypothermia (body temperature < 30 degrees C) and death were determined. L LPS significantly shortened the duration of both normothermia and survival, and nafamostat prolonged the normothermic periods that were reduced b 3 mg.kg(-1) LPS. Survival time was significantly correlated with the duration of normothermia (n = 48; r (2) = 0.779; P < 0.000001). The results demonstrated the effect of systemic administration of nafamostat against LPS-induced hypothermia. Nafamostat prevented hypothermia, and the consequent normal thermoregulation may have prolonged the survival period.

[Perioperative management for cardiovascular operations in two patients with cold agglutinin disease].

Cold agglutinin (CA) reacts reversibly with red blood cells at a low temperature and may cause thromboembolism of various organs. Therefore, special consideration is required in patients with cold agglutinin disease (CAD) undergoing cardiovascular surgery requiring hypothermia. Case 1: A 71-year-old man with elevated CA was scheduled to undergo total aortic arch replacement. Preoperatively, the patient received double filtration plasmapheresis to reduce CAs. The operation was performed at a higher temperature than the patient's thermal amplitude (TA) of 30 degrees C. Case 2: A 72-year-old man with CAD underwent a coronary artery bypass grafting. The patient's TA was 32 degrees C. The operation was performed on the beating heart with normothermic cardiopulmonary bypass. We performed an agglutination test at the temperature of 24 degrees C using the blood sample from the cardiopulmonary bypass circuit and no signs of agglutination were found. In both cases, no symptom of microembolism due to cold agglutination was recognized. This may indicate the possibility that the clinical risk is smaller than the risk recognized in vitro analysis. However, no safety standards for perioperative management of patients with CA are clearly established. Generally, it is more important to figure out the TA and to prevent the low-temperature exposure below the TA. In cases of normothermic procedures, further consideration for cerebral and myocardial protection is important.

[Comparative study of drug efficacy and drug additives between generic drugs and original drugs].

In the present study, we tested three kinds of sleeping drugs, consisting mainly of triazolam, brotizolam, and flunitrazepam, to compare the drug efficacy of generic drugs with that of original drugs. After these drugs were administered orally to mice, drug efficacy was evaluated in terms of ambulation, onset time of sleep, and duration of sleep in the open field test. For all kinds of sleep-inducing drugs, the drug efficacy of most generic drugs is not necessarily equal to that of the original drug. The main reason for the difference appears to be due to differences in the rate of absorption of the main drug. Any other differences between an original drug and a generic drug are caused by drug additives, the crystal form of the main drug, the formulation, and so on. In this study, the formulation was not the reason for the differences because all of the drugs were pulverized in a mortar and had no special coating. The drug additives for all the drugs are listed and the drug efficacy compared. Unfortunately, the information was not sufficient to shed any light on the differences in drug efficacy. For effective drug therapy, more information on drug additives should be provided.

A novel video-assisted anatomic segmentectomy technique: selective segmental inflation via bronchofiberoptic jet followed by cautery cutting.

OBJECTIVE: Segmentectomy is an anatomic parenchyma-sparing resection that is recently being performed for small-sized lung carcinoma and constitutes a useful procedure in a thoracic surgeon's armamentarium. We have generated a new technique that improves the identification of the intersegmental border and whose clinical utility we evaluate in this study. METHODS: Under bronchofiberscopy, jet ventilation is selectively applied to the burdened bronchus to develop an anatomic plane between the inflated segment to be resected and the deflated area to be preserved. From April 2004 to June 2006, 52 consecutive patients with a clinical T1 N0 M0 peripheral cancer 2 cm or smaller underwent video-assisted segmental resection called hybrid VATS segmentectomy in which electrocautery with no stapler was used to divide the intersegmental plane detected by selective jet ventilation. RESULTS: Complete resection was achieved in all patients. The median operative time and bleeding during the operation were 155 minutes (range 85-225 minutes) and 60 mL (range 10-210 mL), respectively. The complication rate was 13.5% (7/52), and the most common was concerning air leak. The median duration of postoperative air leak and chest tube drainage was 1 day and 3 days, respectively. There were no in-hospital deaths. There was one case of mediastinal lymph node recurrence and another of metastasis to the brain although there was no case of local recurrence in the surgical margin area. CONCLUSIONS: A novel video-assisted segmentectomy technique for lung cancer is clinically useful. Selective segmental inflation provides an obvious intersegmental plane quickly and easily, allowing a real margin distance in the ventilated segment. Despite the minimally invasive approach, since only the segment to be resected and not the entire lobe is expanded, an appropriate surgical view is possible.