Single-lumen endotracheal intubated anaesthesia for thoracoscopic sympathectomy--experience of 719 cases.

A total of 719 thoracoscopic sympathicotomies were performed at our hospital from October, 1989 to December, 1992. We have been practicing single-lumen endotracheal intubation for general anaesthesia in all of our cases. We will review our experience and discuss our anaesthetic technique and the intraoperative complications encountered as well as post-operative pain control. General anaesthesia with controlled manual ventilation assisted the surgeon well and created clear access for electro-cauterisation of the sympathetic chain. Thirty patients were randomly chosen for arterial blood gas analysis. There was no evidence of systemic hypoxaemia or clinically significant carbon dioxide retention throughout the surgery or afterwards in the recovery room. In our experience of 719 cases, single-lumen endotracheal intubated anaesthesia is safe and economic for thoracoscopic sympathicotomy.