Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 16, 2026

Local Anesthetic Thoracoscopy for Undiagnosed Pleural Effusion
Published on: November 10, 2023
Unrecognized contralateral intrapleural catheter: bilateral blockade may obscure detection of failed epidural
Michael A Cordone1, Christopher L Wu, Aimee L Maceda
1Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, The Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine; Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Abstract:
Thoracic epidural analgesia has been widely used to reduce both postoperative and posttraumatic pain. We describe a case of inadvertent right-sided interpleural catheter placement and pneumothorax during attempted epidural catheter placement for left-sided rib fractures that went unrecognized because of bilateral blockade and adequate analgesia.
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