Abstract
A patient not known in advance to have the sleep apnoea syndrome (SAS) was administered a combined epidural-general anaesthetic for a proposed radical prostatectomy. After surgery which had to be discontinued due to extensive tumoural spread, morphine 5 mg was administered through the epidural catheter for analgesia. Severe respiratory depression occurred eight hours later and was successfully reversed by repeated injections ofnaloxone. The potential danger of epidural morphine administration to SAS patients is discussed.
Résumé
Une anesthésie générate associée à une épidurale continue a été administrée a un porteur insoupçonné d’apnée du sommeil pour une prostatectomie radicale qui dut être abandonnée parce que non réalisable. Pour fins d’analgésie postopératoire, 5 mg de morphine furent adminis-trés par le cathéter épidural. II en résulta une dépression respiratoire très grave qu’on a pu renverser par des injections répétées de naloxone. Les dangers potentiels de I’administration de morphine épidurale chez les porteurs du syndrome d’apnée du sommeil sont discutés.
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Lamarche, Y., Martin, R., Reiner, J. et al. The sleep apnoea syndrome and epidural morphine. Can Anaesth Soc J 33, 231–233 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03010837
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03010837