OBJECTIVE Video-assisted thoracoscopic (VATS) bullectomy and apical pleurectomy has become the preferred procedure for recurrent or complicated primary spontaneous pneumothorax (SPN). Although thoracic epidural analgesia is the gold standard after open thoracic surgical procedures, its use in the management of minimally invasive procedures in this young population has not been extensively studi...

BACKGROUND Among the many diagnostic and therapeutic interventions available for the management of chronic pain, epidural steroid injections are one of the most commonly used modalities. The explosive growth of this technique is relevant in light of the high cost of health care in the United States and abroad, the previous literature assessing the effectiveness of epidural injections has been s...

For evaluating the effects of thoracic epidural anesthesia, with or without bilateral vagotomy, epinephrine-induced arrhythmias were studied in 31 rabbits anesthetized with 1 minimum alveolar concentration of enflurane. We divided the rabbits into 5 groups: Group I (epidural saline as control group; n=6), Group II (epidural lidocaine without vagotomy; n=6), Group III (intravenous lidocaine; n=7...

Epidural analgesia is a well-established technique that has commonly been regarded as the gold standard in postoperative pain management. However, newer, evidence-based outcome data show that the benefits of epidural analgesia are not as significant as previously believed. There are some benefits in a decrease in the incidence of cardiovascular and pulmonary complications, but these benefits ar...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Oxycodone is poorly studied as an adjuvant to central blockades. The aim of this pilot study was to assess the efficacy and safety of oxycodone hydrochloride in epidural blockade among patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty (THA). PATIENTS AND METHODS In 11 patients (American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status classification system II/III, age range: 59...

In principle, the combination of two different administration of anesthesia routes on the same patient improves effectiveness and reduces side effects (Stevens and Edwards, 1999) [B]: Spinal anesthesia provides fast and reliable segmental anesthesia with minimal risk for toxicity, while epidural anesthesia provides perioperative anesthesia (alone or in combination with general anesthesia), foll...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Ultrasonography of the spine has evolved into a well described technique that can be applied to facilitate neuraxial and lumbar plexus blockade. RECENT FINDINGS There is increasing evidence for the clinical benefits of ultrasound imaging prior to administration of neuraxial blockade. Recent randomized controlled trials have shown that efficacy of epidural analgesia is improv...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Differential thoracic epidural regional block, also known as a differential neural block (DNB), involves the placement of an epidural catheter placed in the thoracic epidural space to achieve appropriate anesthesia in a dermatomal distribution. This is a retrospective case series evaluating how well a DNB may predict success of subsequent visceral blockade in patients with c...

1. Wu CL, Cohen SR, Richman JM, Rowlingson AJ, Courpas GE, Cheung K, et al. Efficacy of postoperative patient-controlled and continuous infusion epidural analgesia versus intravenous patient-controlled analgesia with opioids. Anesthesiology 2005;103:1079-88. 2. Nishimori M, Ballantyne JC, Low JH. Epidural pain relief versus systemic opioid-based pain relief for abdominal aortic surgery. Cochran...