title: Anterior spinal artery syndrome after thoracic surgery.
abstract: Spinal cord infarction is a rare complication following thoracic surgery. We present a case who developed paraplegia on the first postoperative day of thoracotomy. A 76-year-old man with a history of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease was operated for bronchial carcinoma. An epidural infusion of ropivacaine and sufentanil was used for postoperative pain. Eight hours after the surgery, he had an episode of hypotension and respiratory depression. One hour later, he described paraplegia and Ischemia of the spinal cord was found on MRI. There was no recovery during the follow-up.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Ankara Oncology Hospital, Ankara, Turkey. goncatuncel@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Gonca
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tuncel
authors.forename: Gülçin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ozalp
authors.forename: Oozgür
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Canoler
authors.forename: Hüseyin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cakmak
authors.forename: Altan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ergeneci
authors.forename: Nihal
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kadiogullari
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D020759:Anterior Spinal Artery Syndrome / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013908:Thoracotomy / Q000009:adverse effects*