S. S. Moorthy

Reduction of enflurane-induced spike activity by scopolamine.

The possibility of enflurane-induced spike activity being related to a cholinergic mechanism was investigated. Thirty mongrel dogs were anesthetized with an inspired enflurane concentration of 3.5 ± 0.09% (mean ± SD) to obtain a sustained EEG spike activity. Scopolamine, in 0.04 mg/kg to 0.4 mg/kg IV doses, significantly decreased the spike activity (p < 0.05). We speculate that a central cholinergic muscarinic mechanism is at least partly responsible for the EEG spike activity produced by enflurane.

Respiratory distress with left aortic arch, right descending aorta, and right ligamentum arteriosum: a case report.

A 7-year-old girl manifested the rare anomaly of a ventricular septal defect (VSD) with left aortic arch, right descending aorta, and right ligamentum arteriosum. After open-heart surgery to correct the VSD, symptoms of tracheal obstruction on spontaneous breathing developed, due to tracheal compression by the right ligamentum arteriosum. The compressed segment of the trachea was found to be thin and unstable following division of the ligamentum. Positive-pressure breathing and continuous positive airway pressure breathing effectively splinted the patients airway during the postoperative period, with recovery of the patient.

Significance and application of blood gas determinations from the left atrial catheter.

Left atrial catheters are used to measure left heart filling pressure in patients after open-heart surgery. It was observed that in some patients blood gases obtained from the left atrial catheters had a markedly higher PO2 as compared to PaO2 in the presence of severe hypoxemia. Twenty-five patients were studied consecutively; pulmonary venous admixture calculated from arterial blood was higher in 19 patients and lower in 5 as compared with that calculated from blood withdrawn from the left atrial catheter. These differences in venous admixture are due to regional changes in the lungs. This observation can be utilized in concentrating respiratory therapy to the regions of the lungs involved with significant therapeutic benefit to the patient.

Evaluation of larynx and trachea by xeroradiography.

these catheters has been to make the junction between the needle and the catheter as smooth as possible, to facilitate passage through the skin, entrance into the vessel, and slipping the catheter off the needle into the vessel once the vessel wall has been punctured and a good flow obtained. This has generally been accomplished by tapering the distal tip of the catheter, reducing the outside diameter to the minimum compatible with structural integrity of the catheter, in most cases a knife edge. Theoretically, such a knife-edged taper might be easily crimped or roughened if the catheter material were not sufficiently strong to resist the shearing forces to which the edge is subjected in its passage through the skin, subcutaneous tissues, and vessel wall.