The peripheral nerve stimulator: a monitor during continuous spinal anesthesia. Case report.
OBJECTIVE
A continuous spinal anesthetic was planned and conducted for a medically compromised and demented 80-year-old man presenting for repair of an intratrochanteric hip fracture.


METHODS
A peripheral nerve stimulator was successfully employed to monitor the height and to help time the redosing of the continuous spinal anesthetic.


RESULTS
The use of a peripheral nerve stimulator allowed careful titration of our continuous spinal anesthetic to provide dense analgesia at the surgical site for 1 hour 5 minutes, using a total spinal dose of 27 mg lidocaine and 7.5 micrograms spinal fentanyl.


CONCLUSIONS
A standard peripheral nerve stimulator is an effective monitor to help optimize management of continuous spinal anesthesia.
Virginia Mason Medical Center, Seattle, Washington, USA.
J C
JC
Gerancher
R L
RL
Carpenter
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000775:Anesthesia, Spinal / Q000379:methods*; D006620:Hip Fractures / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000379:methods; D017933:Peripheral Nervous System; D004561:Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation