title: [Propofol anesthesia combined with thoracic epidural anesthesia for thymectomy for myasthenia gravis--a report of eleven cases].
abstract: We report 11 cases of thymectomy for myasthenia gravis using propofol and thoracic epidural anesthesia. Considering the influence of nitrous oxide to environment and muscular relaxation of volatile anesthetics, we selected this anesthetic method. By proper sedation with propofol and sufficient analgesia with epidural anesthesia, the hemodynamics during operation was stable and the emergence was rapid. The patients were extubated early after operation except in one case in which oxygenation was not good because of sputum. We conclude that our anesthetic method is useful. Moreover, we applied Fuchu hospital scoring system for prediction of the need of postoperative mechanical ventilation in patients with myasthenia gravis to the present 11 cases. These predictions corresponded well with the results. Therefore Fuchu hospital scoring system is useful for managing these patients by our anesthetic method.
authors.affiliation: Division of Anesthesia, Tokyo Metropolitan Fuchu Hospital, Fuchu 183-0042.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Abe
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Takeuchi
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kaneko
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maeda
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Saitoh
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hikawa
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yasuda
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000767:Anesthesia, Epidural; D000771:Anesthesia, Intravenous; D018686:Anesthetics, Intravenous; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009157:Myasthenia Gravis / Q000601:surgery*; D015742:Propofol; D013934:Thymectomy
chemical_list: D018686:Anesthetics, Intravenous; D015742:Propofol