A 15-kg, 3-year-old child is anesthetized for an inguinal hernia repair with halothane and nitrous oxide. The trachea is intubated after administration of succinylcholine 30 mg. At the conclusion of the 45-minute procedure, the child is not breathing; a peripheral nerve twitch monitor indicates no response to a train-of-four stimulus. Further investigation is most likely to show
(A) abnormal response to nondepolarizing muscle relaxants
(B) a low dibucaine number
(C) a low plasma cholinesterase concentration
(D) an underlying myopathy
(E) a positive halothane-caffeine contracture test
Arterial pressure in the radial artery is 155/70 mmHg measured by a correctly calibrated catheter-transducer system. At the same time aortic pressure is 140/75 mmHg using a high-fidelity catheter tip transducer. The most likely cause of this discrepancy is
(A) a large amount of air in the dome of the radial artery transducer
(B) coarctation of the aorta
(C) peripheral vascular constriction produced by sympathetic stimulation
(D) physiologic amplification of the wave form from the aorta to the radial artery
(E) too high a frequency response in the catheter-transducer system
An axillary block is administered to a 60-kg patient using 40 ml of 0.5% bupivacaine. Ten minutes after placement of the block, the patient has a seizure. Which of the following statements is true?
(A) A low serum albumin concentration could have contributed to the occurrence of the seizure
(B) CNS hypoperfusion is the most likely cause of the seizure
(C) The seizure was probably secondary to an allergic reaction to the local anesthetic
(D) The use of an equipotent dose of lidocaine rather than bupivacaine would have decreased the likelihood of