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We report a case of late-onset systemic toxicity due to ropivacaine over dose, and its successful reversal with 20% lipid emulsion (20% Intralipos). A 40-year-old woman, 40 kg, ASA-I, was scheduled for laparoscopy-assisted myomectomy of the uterus in which 40 ml of 0.375% ropivacaine was injected for bilateral US guided transversus abdominis plane block (TAPblock) under general anesthesia. Anesthesia proceeded uneventfully and she could go back to the ward 15 min later, but 3 hours after TAPblock, her blood pressure dropped to seventies and she became unresponsive. She also displayed clonic seizure/twitching of limbs. Immediately after diazepam 2 mg injection, clonic seizure disappeared and she could obey verbal commands. Within a few minutes clonic seizure was noted again, and she was hypotensive despite administration of vasopressors. A presumptive diagnosis of local anesthetic toxicity was made, and she received 100 ml bolus of 20% Intralipos. She regained consciousness with spontaneous return of blood pressure. She received a total of 230 ml 20% Intralipos, which was discontinued due to her rapid emergence with no further seizure episodes. This case suggests that early and sufficient use of lipid emulsion may lead to a good outcome. We recommend the immediate availability of lipid emulsion along with other emergency therapeutics at the ward after TAPblock.

A 55-year-old man with hypertension was scheduled for resection of spinal tumor at S1 in the prone position. Anesthesia was induced with midazolam 10 mg, fentanyl 0.2 mg and vecuronium 10 mg, and maintained with sevoflurane 1.5-2% in oxygen 3 l x min(-1) and fentanyl 0.4 mg. When the interspinal ligament was handled, severe ST depression on the ECG was observed for 1 minute, followed by ventricular tachycardia (VT). Immediately, 60 mg of lidocaine was administered intravenously, and ventricular rhythm recovered to sinus rhythm with normal ST level within a few minutes, but the surgery was postponed. In the preoperative examinations, the patient had been evaluated as a low risk case except for a long history of hypertension. Coronary spasm was suspected to have induced VT, because it followed severe ST depression. This experience taught us that in order to avoid critical arrhythmia, patients under general anesthesia, especially those undergoing surgery in the prone position, require particular attention because of the difficulty in cardiac resuscitation.

We experienced a case of dissociative stupor with decorticated posture in a 71-year-old woman after neck clipping of the brain aneurysm. Decorticated posture is observed with severe midbrain disorder caused by brain herniation. In this case, therefore, severe brain stem damage was suspected, although light reflex was observed and respiration was stable. In addition, in this case, the aneurysm was located at the junction of the internal carotid artery and the posterior communicating artery. Therefore, surgical damage to midbrain was not likely to have happened. Postoperative computed tomography showed no abnormality in this region. Two days later, her symptom disappeared, and she could clearly recollect memory of these two days just after surgery. However, she could not follow directions because of a sense of fear. Thus her symptom might be based on a kind of mental disorder. Patients with conversion disorder react abnormally to stimulus or stress. Stupor was diagnosed as due to defect of reaction to stimulus of sound, light and touch. She was diagnosed as dissociative stupor of the conversion disorder type. In this case, decorticated posture was caused by mental disorder. We have to pay attention not only to brain tissue damage but also to psychological damage of patients.