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Radiological and clinical distribution of thoracic paravertebral blockade in infants and children
Author(s) -
LÖNNQVIST P.A.,
HESSER U.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
pediatric anesthesia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.704
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1460-9592
pISSN - 1155-5645
DOI - 10.1111/j.1460-9592.1993.tb00042.x
Subject(s) - medicine , radiological weapon , bolus (digestion) , nuclear medicine , radiography , correlation , blockade , volume of distribution , distribution (mathematics) , radiology , surgery , pharmacokinetics , mathematical analysis , geometry , mathematics , receptor
Summary The radiological distribution of thoracic paravertebral blockade was studied by chest radiographs with radio‐opaque dye injection in 18 paediatric patients. Two distinct patterns of distribution were found: longitudinal and cloudlike. Linear regression analysis found a strong correlation between the relative injected volume of radio‐opaque dye and the number of covered segments for the longitudinal group ( r = 0.92; number of segments = 3.19 + 14.49 × ml·kg −1 ) whereas a moderate correlation was found for the cloudlike group ( r = 0.47; number of segments = 3.27 + 3.21 × ml·kg −1 ). An injected volume of 0.25 (SD 0.12) ml·kg −1 of radio‐opaque dye was found to cover 5.7 (SD 1.6) segments. In no case could spread to the extradural space be found. The clinical distribution of the blocks was examined in a small number of patients and was found to extend from dematome Th 3/4 to Th 12. An initial bolus dose of 0.5 ml·kg −1 of the local anaesthetic solution is advocated in order to cover reliably at least five segments which would be sufficient in most clinical situations.