An 84-year-old female (body weight 56 kg, ASA status III) was scheduled for right artificial femoral head replacement. Her pelvic X-ray revealed a right intertrochanteric fracture. She had hypertension for 35 years and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) for 20 years. She took daily oral nifedipine for hypertension, but did not take any treatment for COPD. The result of pulmonary function test showed that the FEV1/FVC was 35% and the bronchodilator test was negative. Cardiac Doppler ultrasonography indicated moderate pulmonary artery hypertension. A chest X-ray revealed pulmonary infection of bilateral lower lobes. Low-molecular-weight heparin was used for prevent thrombus formation at 4000IU per day and stopped 24 hours before surgery. The preoperative visual analogue scale (VAS) score of this patient was 6. The ultrasound guided lumbar SNRB plus T12 paravertebral and sacral plexus blocks were performed on this patient as described in the Methods section, and 25 mL of 0.4% ropivacaine was used for these blocks. The success of these blocks was confirmed by pinprick test. The time of surgery was 42 minutes. She did not complain any painful during surgery and in postanesthesia care unit (PACU). As postoperative analgesia was achieved by patient-controlled analgesia (PCA), the postoperative VAS scores were 0 to 1. This patient discharged on the fifth day after surgery. No postoperative complication was reported with her.
Case 4: A 65 years old male (weight 76 kg, ASA status III) was scheduled for left THA. He was diagnosed with AS for 10 years, and developed necrosis of both femoral heads, and could not walk because of pain in the left hip joint. He had a history of hypertension for 10 years, and diabetes mellitus for 7 years, and smoking history for 50 years with nearly 50 cigarettes per day. A chest X-ray revealed enhanced texture of bilateral lungs and right pleural effusion. X-ray of his pelvic revealed bilateral femoral head necrosis, narrowed joint space, osteoproliferation and bone defect under articular surface of bilateral sacra-iliac joints and hip joints, and bamboo-like changes of lower lumbar spine.