title: Inadvertent hypothermia causes pulseless electrical activity in a patient during cervical spine surgery--a case report.
abstract: Recent studies have shown that hypothermia triples the incidence of major cardiac events. We present a happening in which a 71-year-old patient developed pulseless electrical activity (PEA) while he was undergoing cervical laminectomy for spinal stenosis in the sitting position. Thromboembolism or venous air embolism and acute myocardial infarction were respectively excluded by transesophageal echocardiography and cardiac enzymes analysis to be the causes of the cardiac event. The abnormal finding that stood out was low nasopharyngeal temperature (31 degrees C) during the procedure, which was thought to contribute to the development of the PEA episode.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesia, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, 5 Fu-Shin St., Kweishan, Taoyuan, Taiwan, R.O.C.
authors.forename: H L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: C Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: C Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: P W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Lui
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D007035:Hypothermia / Q000150:complications*; D007431:Intraoperative Complications / Q000209:etiology*; D007796:Laminectomy / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008297:Male; D013130:Spinal Stenosis / Q000601:surgery*