You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Letter to the Editor
Methaemoglobinaemia after peribulbar blockade: an unusual complication in ophthalmic surgery
  1. HOLGER ELTZSCHIG,
  2. MARTIN ROHRBACH,
  3. TORSTEN HANS SCHROEDER
  1. Department of Anaesthesiology and Department of Ophthalmology, Eberhard-Karls-University Tuebingen, Germany
  1. Torsten H Schroeder, MD, Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 181 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA

https://doi.org/10.1136/bjo.84.4.439e

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    Editor,—Peribulbar blockade is frequently used for anaesthesia in ophthalmic surgery. Owing to its short onset time and low incidence of cardiac and central nervous system toxicity, the local anaesthetic prilocaine is a popular choice for peribulbar blockade. Prilocaine is, however, the most potent methaemoglobin forming local anaesthetic. We report a case of prilocaine induced methaemoglobinaemia after peribulbar blockade for ophthalmic surgery.

    CASE REPORT

    A 27 year old Romanian woman presented with a detached retina requiring surgical repair. Her medical history was significant for insulin dependent diabetes mellitus complicated by chronic renal failure, anaemia, and diabetic retinopathy. Her daily medication included captopril 25 mg, verapamil 240 mg, isosorbide dinitrate 40 mg, and frusemide 40 mg. A mixture of prilocaine 80 mg, bupivacaine 30 mg, hyaluronidase, and naphazoline was used to perform a peribulbar anaesthesia. Vital signs at the beginning …

    View Full Text