title: One lung ventilation in endoscopic transthoracic sympathectomy.
abstract: Endoscopic transthoracic sympathectomy currently requires one lung anaesthesia to facilitate access to the thoracic sympathetic chain. This may cause reduced perioperative arterial oxygen saturation. We describe a series of patients in which the collapsed lung is kept partially inflated using continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) with 100% oxygen. This modification of anaesthetic technique enabled a normal arterial oxygen saturation to be maintained thus preventing operative delays whilst the lung was reinflated to restore adequate oxygen saturation.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Kings College Hospital, Denmark Hill, London, UK.
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Andrews
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bras
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Rennie
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D011175:Positive-Pressure Respiration; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013562:Sympathectomy / Q000379:methods; D013906:Thoracoscopy