The injection of vasoconstrictors together with a local anaesthetic will prolong the duration of spinal anaesthesia. We use phenylephrine ((-)-l-(mhydroxyphenyl>2-methyl-aminoethanol HQ), which has been reported to double the duration of anaesthesia (Moore and Bridenbaugh, 1966). These authors found no systemic response to the added phenylephrine in a retrospective study of 1911 spinal anaesthe...

BACKGROUND Use of ultrasound in brain tumor surgery is common. The difference in attenuation between brain and isotonic saline may cause artifacts that degrade the ultrasound images, potentially affecting resection grades and safety. Our research group has developed an acoustic coupling fluid that attenuates ultrasound energy like the normal brain. We aimed to test in animals if the newly devel...

Subarachnoid Space Opacification on Delayed Postcontrast Fluid-Attenuated Inversion Recovery Imaging in Spontaneous Intracranial Hypotension: Visualizing the Monro-Kellie Hypothesis Intracranial volume compensatory changes explained by the MonroKellie hypothesis (MKH) occur in spontaneous intracranial hypotension (SIH) and may be seen on MR imaging. This case illustrates previously unreported f...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Chronic cerebral arterial vasospasm is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Not all cases of SAH, however, develop chronic vasospasm. Inflammation, specifically leukocyte-endothelial cell interactions, appears to be critical in vasospasm development. Haptoglobin (Hp) is a serum protein that limits the extent of infla...

OBJECTIVES To investigate acute changes of systemic parameters following experimental subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) and cerebral vasospasm conditions created by intracisternal injection of fresh autologous blood in a rabbit model. METHODS The study was carried out at the Neurosurgery Clinic, Izmir Training and Research Hospital, Izmir, Turkey between April 2002 and March 2005. Thirty-two male...

Development of a communication between the spinal subarachnoid space and the pleural space after thoracic spine surgery is uncommon. Subarachnoid pleural fistula (SAPF), a distressing condition, involves cerebrospinal fluid leakage. Here we report an unusual case of SAPF, occurring after thoracic spine surgery, that was further complicated by pneumocephalus and pneumorrhachis postthoracentesis,...

1. In anaesthetized patients under controlled respiration, samples of lumbar cerebrospinal fluid were withdrawn 15 and 60 min after an intravenous injection of 30 mg tubocurarine. When tested on the frog rectus muscle preparation contracted by acetylcholine, they exerted curare-like activity which corresponded to between 0.05 and 0.33 mug/ml tubocurarine.2. In dogs anaesthetized with pentobarbi...