Phrenic nerve stimulation is a technique whereby a nerve stimulator provides electrical stimulation of the phrenic nerve to cause diaphragmatic contraction. The most common indications for this procedure are central alveolar hypoventilation and high quadriplegia. This paper reviews the available data on the 19 patients treated with phrenic nerve stimulation in Australia to date. Of the 19 patie...

Takiguchi et al. (1) have recently emphasized the occurrence of hiccups in cancer patients as a poorly recognized complication of chemotherapy. Hiccups is indeed a relatively frequent problem in these patients that usually occurs when there is continuous phrenic nerve or diaphragmatic irritation (for example, from mediastinal or abdominal tumors or abscesses, hepatomegaly, ascites, esophagitis,...

A 64 year old gentleman with cervical spondylosis presented with sudden onset breathlessness associated with significant orthopnea. On clinical examination he had decreased power in his upper extremities with reduced chest excursion. Cervical spine MRI revealed severe spondylosis at multilevel with evidence of cord compression. Chest x ray showed elevated left diaphragm and sniff test confirmed...

Mañero M et al. Phrenic nerve paralysis during cryoballoon ablation for atrial fibrillation: a comparison between the firstand second-generation balloon. Heart Rhythm 2013;10:1318–24. 15. Franceschi F, Dubuc M, Guerra PG, Khairy P. Phrenic nerve monitoring with diaphragmatic electromyography during cryoballoon ablation for atrial fibrillation: the first human application. Heart Rhythm 2011;8:10...

Atelectasis following coronary artery bypass surgery (CAB) occurs in the majority of patients. To determine the importance of operative variables in the development of postoperative atelectasis and the incidence of phrenic nerve injury caused by topical cold cardioplegic solution, we studied 57 patients (53 male, four female) undergoing CAB. Their mean age, +/- SD, was 58 +/- 13 years. Transcut...

Phrenic nerve conduction was studied in 28 patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome. Conduction time was prolonged in 18 (64.3%) patients and serial studies showed progressive improvement with restoration of normal values in the majority by 12 weeks. The conduction abnormalities had a positive correlation with the extent of the disease, morbidity and mortality. Phrenic nerve conduction time was fo...

Atrial fibrillation ablation has emerged as an effective tool in the management of symptomatic atrial fibrillation. Currently, the electrophysiologists are striving to maximize the success while minimizing complications. Phrenic nerve injury (PNI) is one of the concerning complications, especially in cases of cryoballoon ablation. Due to anatomical proximity to atrial tissue, phrenic nerve is p...

RATIONALE Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating motor neuron disease causing paralysis and death from respiratory failure. Strategies to preserve and/or restore respiratory function are critical for successful treatment. Although breathing capacity is maintained until late in disease progression in rodent models of familial ALS (SOD1(G93A) rats and mice), reduced numbers of phren...

Ventilatory differences between rat strains and genders have been described but the morphology of the phrenic nerve has not been investigated in spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) and normotensive Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats. A descriptive and morphometric study of the phrenic nerves of male (N = 8) and female (N = 9) SHR, and male (N = 5) and female (N = 6) WKY is presented. After arterial pressure ...

The level of integrated phrenic nerve activity (C3 root) has been studied under various forms of impairment of respiratory muscle function, such as paralysis (gallamine), pneumothorax and phrenectomy. Experiments were performed in two groups of rabbits artificially ventilated by means of the conventional respirator and the phrenic nerve driven respirator. It was found that both paralysis and bi...