BACKGROUND: If epileptogenic foci are close to eloquent areas of the brain, awakening is needed for functional mapping during seizure surgery. In these cases adequate analgesia and sedation are needed. However sufficient dosage of intravenous anesthetics leads to many side effects. The authors used propofol and fentanyl infusion combined with scalp nerve block to reduce the severity of side effects from overdose of anesthetics. METHODS: The subjects were adult patients who would undergo awake craniotomy. After administering fentanyl 50~100 mcg intravenously, scalp nerve block was done to supraorbital, supratrochlear, auriculotemporal and lesser and greater occipital nerves of the surgical side with 0.25% bupivacaine containing 1 : 200,000 epinephrine. The anterior temporal region was infiltrated with the same local anesthetics. Oxygen was given by nasal cannula. During operation fentanyl was infused. Propofol was infused except during the awake period. Invasive arterial blood pressure, end-tidal CO2 and respiratory rate were monitored throughout the operation and arterial blood gas analysis was done intermittently. RESULTS: During total anesthesia time (410.3 39.9 min) propofol 16.2 6.3 mg/kg and fentanyl 11.9 3.7 mcg/kg were administered. The results of scalp nerve block were satisfactory. Brain swelling and transient decrease in respiratory rate were noticed in six patients and oxygen desaturation to 94% in one patient. All the patients were cooperative and the above problems were solved by reducing drug infusion rates. CONCLUSIONS: Propofol and fentanyl infusion with scalp nerve block may be an adequate method of anesthetic management for awake craniotomy.
Adult ; Analgesia ; Anesthesia ; Anesthetics ; Anesthetics, Intravenous ; Anesthetics, Local ; Arterial Pressure ; Blood Gas Analysis ; Brain ; Brain Edema ; Bupivacaine ; Catheters ; Craniotomy* ; Epinephrine ; Fentanyl ; Humans ; Nerve Block* ; Oxygen ; Propofol ; Respiratory Rate ; Scalp* ; Seizures

PURPOSE: We tried to evaluate whether the detection rate of Helicobacter pylori in gastric biopsy specimens could be improved by using pre-embedding immunoelectron microscopy. METHODS: A total of 119 children who complained of upper gastrointestinal symptoms were endoscoped at the Gyeongsang National University Hospital from July, 1996 to July, 1999. Five biopsy specimens(three for urease test, one for hematoxylin-eosin(H and E) staining, and one for pre- embedding immunoelectron microscopy) were obtained from each antrum and body. Immunoblotting analysis were also performed. RESULTS: Among the 119 patients, H. pylori were found in 116 patients(97.5%) by the immunoelectron microscopy. Among three patients who were found H. pylori negative in immunoelectron microscopy, two patients showed H. pylori in H and E stained slides and one patient was urease test positive(color change within six hours). Urease tests were positive in 107 patients(89.9 %). The positive rate of immunoblotting tests was 81.5%. However, only 13 patients(10.9%) showed H. pylori on the H and E stained antrum or body tissue. CONCLUSION: In this study, we found H. pylori histopathologically in most of the pediatric patients who complained of upper gastrointestinal symptoms. This study showed that pre-embedding immunoelectron microscopic examinations can be used as a gold standard in the diagnosis of childhood H. pylori infection. However, this method also has limited capacity to detect widely scattered H. pylori compared to the other histopathologic diagnostic methods.
Biopsy ; Child ; Diagnosis ; Helicobacter pylori* ; Helicobacter* ; Humans ; Immunoblotting* ; Microscopy, Immunoelectron* ; Urease