For example, in these procedures it is often difficult to open the patient's mouth wide enough for laryngoscopy and intubation, thus creating the possibility that cardiopulmonary changes may be present and the "probability o lesions in oesophagus, bowel, kindneys, skin and joints." This information would not be known if not for this study and its reported findings.
The study's conclusion is that the use of thoracic epidural anesthesia to sevoflurane based inhalation "may be a suitable technique for thoracic surgery in achalasia due to sclerodermic patients." The reason for this conclusion is that the study found that this procedure "can provide a smooth anesthesia course and a rapid recovery, with hemodynamic stability, and also having pain-free postoperatively." More so, the study found that providing anesthesia without neuromuscular blockade and non-intravenous opioids has "provided a shorter recovery time."
Clearly this specific case study has important and practical implications to...
Besides from the benefits it provides for inducing anesthesia in this type of surgical procedure, this case study also provides an excellent example for proper analysis and methodology of a study. The report began with posing the question as to the best course of administering anesthesia in a surgical procedure involving thoracic epidural blockade in a patient with achalasia due to scleroderma. To reach its conclusion, it followed and measured the procedure and its effects as performed on an eighty-four-year-old male. These results were then compared to results gathered from previous procedures where other methods were used, allowing the researches to draw the conclusions that they did in the case study at hand.
Bibliography
Erol, Demet Dogan, M.D. (2006): "Thoracic Epidural Blockade in an Elderly with Achalasia Due to Scleroderma for Thoractomy, Esophageal Myotomy and Cystotomy-Capitonnage. The Internet Journal of Anesthesiology. Vol. 11, Number 1.
