[Anesthetic management of a patient for giant pulmonary bulla drainage]

Recently it is claimed that the drainage procedure may be a useful method for giant pulmonary bulla in compromised patients. We reported the anesthetic managements of three patients with giant bulla for these procedures. We chose epidural anesthesia in order to prepare for the postoperative analgesia and the expansion of surgical procedure. In selecting circulatory support method, care was taken to choose dobutamine that would cause no suppression of hypoxic ventilatory drive. There is no doubt that right ventricular function is particularly important in patients with chronic obstructive lung disease. We measured right ventricular ejection fraction by thermodilution method and end-tidal CO2 by nasal cannula. These measurements may be useful methods for perioperative monitoring.