Saturday, April 5, 2008

Severe bronchospasm after sympathectomy

Does bilateral thoracic sympathectomy predispose to reflex bronchospasm following tracheal intubation?

Ahed Zeidan, MD*, Nazih Nahle, MD* and Anis Baraka, MD FRCA{dagger}

* Sahel General Hospital,
{dagger} American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon,

To the Editor:

Thoracic endoscopic sympathectomy has become the technique of choice for treating intractable essential hyperhidrosis.1 We report severe bronchospasm following tracheal intubation in a patient with a previous history of bilateral thoracic sympathectomy.

Canadian Journal of Anesthesia 52:997-998 (2005)
© Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society, 2005