Morbid obesity, anesthesia, anaesthesia,

Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) typically affects obese young women. Treatment is mainly medical, but some cases require surgery; ventriculoperitoneal (VPS) or lumboperitoneal shunts (LPS) being the most common procedures. Although bariatric surgery is not the first-line surgical treatment, it can be useful in refractory cases and allows treating the major underlying risk factor and its comorbidities. Laparoscopic bariatric surgery is the gold standard; however, literature in patients with shunts is scarce...

Since 1975, a plethora of lectures within the context of annual meetings relevant for the clinical care has been summarized in "what's new in obstetric anesthesia" by the society for Obstetric anesthesia and Perinatology which can be recommended to everyone interested in anaesthesiology in the delivery room. After the death of Gerard W. Ostheimer, Professor of Anaesthesiology at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, it became renamed the Gerard W. Ostheimer "what's new in obstetric anesthesia" lecture to honor his contributions to regional anesthesia and obstetric anaesthesia...

Since 1975, a plethora of lectures within the context of annual meetings relevant for the clinical care has been summarized in "what's new in obstetric anesthesia" by the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology which can be recommended to everyone interested in anaesthesiology in the delivery room. After the death of Gerard W. Ostheimer, Professor of Anaesthesiology at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, it became renamed the Gerard W. Ostheimer "what's new in obstetric anesthesia" lecture to honor his contributions to regional anesthesia and obstetric anaesthesia...

Early patient's activation is the best method of prophylaxis of many complications of the postoperative period. Patients with obesity are at high risk of developing complications in respiratory system. The following clinical report is about the successful implementation of the shortened postoperative period program in patient with morbid obesity after general desflurane maintained anesthesia and, at the same time, epidural ropivacaine-based anesthesia. Anesthesia lasted for 10 hours. The intraoperative period was well controlled and characterized with stable hemodynamic indexes...

Peripartum cardiomyopathy is a potentially fatal form of heart failure associated with pregnancy. A 27-year-old Nigerian woman, gravida 1, para 0, presented at 31 weeks' gestation with no previous history of hypertension heart disease, but morbidly obese (body mass index of 42 kg/m2), with uncontrolled and hypertension, severe pulmonary oedema who required an urgent Caesarean section is presented. The patient was admitted into the hospital's ICU for stabilisation. She was placed on oxygen by non-rebreathing face mask while receiving intravenous labetalol and frusemide...

BACKGROUND: As a result of the increasing prevalence of obesity in the UK, anesthetists are increasingly encountering overweight and obese patients in routine practice. There is currently a paucity of evidence to guide best clinical practice for anesthetists managing overweight and obese patients. The current guidelines from the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (AAGBI), entitled Peri-Operative Management of the Morbidly Obese Patient, give an excellent overview of organizational issues, but leave much clinical detail to the discretion of the individual clinician...

We describe the awake fibreoptic intubation followed by awake prone positioning of a woman weighing 180 kg with body mass index of 62 kg.m(-2) requiring emergency lumbar discectomy for cauda equina syndrome. This approach was taken to overcome difficulties in transfering an anaesthetised patient on to the operating table. Following topical anaesthesia with lidocaine and low-dose remifentanil infusion, oral intubation was performed using a split oral airway to guide the fibrescope. The patient positioned herself on the Jackson operating table, following which general anaesthesia was induced...

UNLABELLED: We evaluated the Intubating Laryngeal MAsk (ILMA Fastrach) efficacy for airway management, ventilation and blind intubation in obese and overweight patients. Methods. 50 adult patients (22 men and 28 women) with predicted difficult trachea intubation (PDTI), undergoing general anaesthesia with ILMA were included in this study. ILMA was selected according to gender: ILMA No 5 for men and No 4 for women. PREMEDICATION: diazepam and H,-blockers. Anaesthesia induction: midazolam 0...

This review presents principals of complications prevention, anaesthesia methods choose, preoperative preparation, anaesthesia management and postoperative care in morbid obese patients.

The Fourth National Audit Project (NAP4) was set up by the Royal College of Anaesthetists and Difficult Airway Society to provide an insight into major complications of airway management in the United Kingdom. The NAP4 found that one serious airway complication such as death, brain damage, the need for surgical airway or unexpected intensive care admission, was reported for every 5500 general anaesthetics. Most of the events happened during daytime to a senior experienced clinicians. Airway assessment was not recorded before surgery in 74% of patients that ended up with life threatening airway complications...

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of obesity is on the upward trend world-wide. This epidemic has challenging implications for anaesthetists, following the anthropometric changes associated with the disease. OBJECTIVE: To highlight some of the challenges, the management and the lessons learnt during the management of this patient. METHODS: This is a case report of a 52-year old super morbidly obese, diabetic, and hypertensive patient that presented for total abdominal hysterectomy...

We conducted an observational prospective multicenter study to describe the practices of mechanical ventilation, to determine the incidence of use of large intra-operative tidal volumes (≥10 ml.kg(-1) of ideal body weight) and to identify patient factors associated with this practice. Of the 2960 patients studied in 97 anaesthesia units from 49 hospitals, volume controlled mode was the most commonly used (85%). The mean (SD) tidal volume was 533 (82) ml; 7.7 (1.3) ml.kg(-1) (actual weight) and 8.8 (1.4) ml...

Several studies have identified difficult airway management including a difficult tracheal intubation of patients undergoing general anaesthesia as a major cause of anaesthesia-related morbidity and mortality. Therefore it is presumed that a difficult tracheal intubation is a surrogate marker for morbidity and mortality, and by reducing the prevalence of difficult tracheal intubation then morbidity and mortality will be reduced as well. From the Danish Anaesthesia Database (DAD), we retrieved a cohort of consecutive patients planned and attempted for tracheal intubation by direct laryngoscopy...

OBJECTIVE: To detail specificity of regional anaesthesia techniques in the obese patient. DATA SOURCES: Articles were selected from Medline database using the combination of the following keywords: obesity, peripheral nerve block, spinal anaesthesia, epidural, morbidity, mortality. STUDY SELECTION: Most recent original articles or review have mainly been selected. Some case reports that highlighted specific points were added. DATA EXTRACTION: Articles were analyzed for advantages and drawbacks, and risks of different techniques in obese patient...

A 73-year-old morbidly obese female patient (weight 125 kg, height 156 cm) was scheduled for cataract surgery of her right eye. Due to a number of severe co-morbidities general anaesthesia was contraindicated. However the patient was very anxious and requested sedation if the procedure was to be undertaken under local anaesthesia. She responded very positively to the proposal of utilising perioperative hypnosis. Hypnotic induction was achieved with the heavy eyelid technique, putting the patient into trance within 30 seconds...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: Complete and fast recovery of neuromuscular function is very important in morbidly obese patients because of the possible influence of postoperative residual curarization (PORC) on respiratory function in the postoperative period. Recent reports underline incidences of the residual influence of neuromuscular blocking agents. METHODS: Seventy morbidly obese (BMI >40 kg m(-2)) patients requiring general anaesthesia and receiving rocuronium for muscle relaxation were randomly assigned into two groups: at the end of the anaesthetic procedure, one group received sugammadex 2 mg kg(-1) of corrected body weight (Group SUG) and the other group received neostigmine 0...

BACKGROUND: The type of anaesthetic used affects the cardiovascular function in morbidly obese patients during pneumoperitoneum. In this prospective randomized study, we evaluated the influence of inhalation anaesthesia with sevoflurane or intravenous anaesthesia with propofol on haemodynamic performance in obese patients during laparoscopy. METHODS: Patients scheduled for laparoscopic bariatric procedures were randomly divided into two groups: sevoflurane (group S) or propofol (group P)...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The interest in bariatric surgery is growing. Morbidly obese patients have an increased risk of hypoxia and decreased blood pressure during rapid sequence induction (RSI). Alternate RSI methods that provide cardiovascular and respiratory stability are required. With this in mind, we evaluated a method for volatile RSI in morbidly obese patients. DESIGN: Observational study. METHODS: Thirty-four patients with mean BMI 42...

Obesity is increasing in the population as a whole, and especially in the obstetric population, among whom pregnancy-induced physiological changes impact on those already present due to obesity. In particular, changes in the cardiovascular and respiratory systems during pregnancy further alter the physiological effects and comorbidities of obesity. Obese pregnant women are at increased risk of diabetes, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, ischaemic heart disease, congenital malformations, operative delivery postpartum infection and thromboembolism...