Non-intubated thoracoscopic surgery for decortication of empyema under thoracic epidural anesthesia: a case report.

Non-intubated thoracoscopic surgery for decortication of empyema under thoracic epidural anesthesia: a case report. Korean J Anesthesiol. 2017 Jun;70(3):341-344 Authors: Moon EJ, Go YJ, Chung JY, Yi JW Abstract General anesthesia is the main strategy for almost all thoracic surgeries. However, a growing body of literature has reported successful cases of non-intubated thoracic surgery with regional anesthesia. This alternative strategy not only prevents complications related to general anesthesia, such as lung injury, incomplete re-expansion and intubation related problems, but also accords with trends of shorter hospital stay and lower overall costs. We experienced a successful case of non-intubated thoracoscopic decortication for a 68-year-old man who was diagnosed as empyema while the patient kept spontaneously breathing with moderate sedation under thoracic epidural anesthesia. The patient showed a fast recovery without concerns of general anesthesia related complications and effective postoperative analgesia through thoracic epidural patient-controlled analgesia device. This is the first report of non-intubated thoracoscopic surgery under thoracic epidural anesthesia in Korea, and we expect that various well designed prospective studies will warrant the improvement of outcomes in non-intubated thoracoscopic surgery. PMID: 28580086 [PubMed - in process]
Source: Korean Journal of Anesthesiology - Category: Anesthesiology Tags: Korean J Anesthesiol Source Type: research