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Purpose: Anesthetic management for patients with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) is controversial. Description of the use of regional anesthesia (RA) in patients with CMT is limited. Regional anesthesia has traditionally been avoided because of risk of nerve injury. We retrospectively reviewed patients with CMT who received RA at our institution., Methods: We performed a historical cohort study of all patients with CMT who received RA from 30 April 2010 to 30 April 2020 within our institution. Charts were reviewed for information on demographics, RA procedures, perioperative variables, evidence of neurologic complications, post-RA neurology consults, and perioperative electromyography (EMG) results. Electromyographs were reviewed by a neurologist who was blinded to the surgical and RA details., Results: Fifty-three patients received a total of 132 regional anesthetics during the study period. Twenty-five patients received RA on more than one occasion. Fifty-five EMGs and 14 postoperative neurology consults were performed. Two patients had neurology consults with peripheral nerve block (PNB) distribution complaints years later. Neither attributed the complaints to the PNB. The other neurology consults were for unrelated complaints. No EMG results suggested injury related to PNB., Conclusion: This study found no evidence of documented neurologic complications or an increased risk of nerve injury related to RA in CMT patients., (© 2022. Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society.)

Purpose: While sugammadex (SGX) is not approved for use in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD), its administration in this patient population has been reported. We designed the current study to review all instances of patients with ESRD receiving SGX and to describe their clinical outcomes., Methods: This is a historical cohort study of 219 patients with chronic kidney disease stage 5 who received SGX in one of three hospital locations within the same academic health system. Data were collected between 7 March 2016 and 1 August 2019 and included demographics, notable events from the anesthesia records, and postoperative complications. The primary outcome included any complication possibly related to SGX such as hypersensitivity reactions, need for reintubation, hypoxemia, pneumonia, and residual neuromuscular blockade. Secondary outcomes included any other complication not included in the primary outcome and/or patient mortality within 30 days after the procedure., Results: No patient experienced a hypersensitivity reaction. Three patients required reintubation while two patients developed hypoxemia that did not require reintubation. One patient developed hospital-acquired pneumonia. Fifty (23%) patients developed other postoperative complications (different from our primary outcome) and nine patients (4%) died during the subsequent 30 postoperative days. None of the primary or secondary outcomes appeared to be related to SGX use., Conclusions: We provide incremental evidence that SGX could be considered as an alternative neuromuscular blockade reversal agent in patients with ESRD.

Background and Objectives: Lumbar plexus (LP) block is a common and useful regional anesthesia technique. Surface landmarks used to identify the LP in patients with healthy spines have been previously described, with the distance from the spinous process (SP) to the skin overlying the LP being approximately two-thirds the distance from the SP to the posterior superior iliac spine (PSIS) (SP-LP:SP-PSIS ratio). In scoliotic patients, rotation of the central neuraxis may make these surface landmarks unreliable, possibly leading to an increased block failure rate and an increased incidence of complications. The objective of the present study was to describe these surface landmarks of the LP in patients with scoliosis., Methods: We selected 47 patients with known thoracolumbar scoliotic disease from our institution's radiology archives. We measured bony landmark geometry, Cobb angle, and the LP location and depth. Additionally, we calculated the SP-LP:SP-PSIS ratio for both the concave and convex sides., Results: In scoliotic patients (31 females and 16 males), the median (range) Cobb angle was 23 (8-54) degrees. The LP depth was 7.5 (5.7-10.7) cm on the concave side of the scoliotic spine and 7.6 (5.4-10.8) cm on the convex side, while the distance from the SP-LP was 3.4 (1.9-4.7) cm on the concave side and 3.7 (2.4-5.1) cm on the convex side. The SP-LP:SP-PSIS ratio was 0.61 (0.20-0.97) and 0.65 (0.45-0.98) on the concave and convex sides, respectively. None of these distances were significantly different between sides., Conclusions: In patients with scoliotic disease of the spine, there is wide variability in the bony surface landmarks. The location of the LP is generally more medial than expected when compared with both modified and traditional landmarks. A review of the imaging studies and the pre-procedural ultrasound assessment of the anatomy should be considered prior to needle puncture.