Non-intubated thoracoscopic surgery for decortication of empyema under thoracic epidural anesthesia: a case report

• Main Authors: Eun-Jin Moon, Yoon-Ju Go, Jun-Young Chung, Jae-Woo Yi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Korean Society of Anesthesiologists 2017-06-01
• Series: Korean Journal of Anesthesiology
• Subjects: non-intubated; thoracic epidural anesthesia; thoracoscopic surgery
• Online Access: http://ekja.org/upload/pdf/kjae-70-341.pdf

General anesthesia is the main strategy for almost all thoracic surgeries. However, a growing body of literature has reported successful cases of non-intubated thoracic surgery with regional anesthesia. This alternative strategy not only prevents complications related to general anesthesia, such as lung injury, incomplete re-expansion and intubation related problems, but also accords with trends of shorter hospital stay and lower overall costs. We experienced a successful case of non-intubated thoracoscopic decortication for a 68-year-old man who was diagnosed as empyema while the patient kept spontaneously breathing with moderate sedation under thoracic epidural anesthesia. The patient showed a fast recovery without concerns of general anesthesia related complications and effective postoperative analgesia through thoracic epidural patient-controlled analgesia device. This is the first report of non-intubated thoracoscopic surgery under thoracic epidural anesthesia in Korea, and we expect that various well designed prospective studies will warrant the improvement of outcomes in non-intubated thoracoscopic surgery.