| Sudden Cardiac Arrest Following Cervical Facet Joint Injection: A case report. |
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Young Sun Seo, Jong Hyuk Kim, Choon Hak Lim, Hae Ja Lim, Hye Won Lee, Suk Min Yoon, Seong Ho Chang, In Jung Chae |
1Departments of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, College of Medicine, Korea University, Seoul, Korea. torchid@korea.ac.kr
2Departments of Orthopedic Surgery, College of Medicine, Korea University, Seoul, Korea. |
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| Abstract |
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The common disorder called facet syndrome exhibits back pain, with or without referred or radiating pain due to facet joint arthropathy. Facet joint injection using local anesthetics is a reliable method for the diagnosis and treatment for facet syndrome. Because the complications secondary to facet block have usually been temporary and infrequent, facet block has been known as a simple and safe procedure. But spinal anesthesia is a serious complication of facet block and can lead to a life threatening conditions. The authors report a patient who developed un-explainable cardiac arrest following facet joint injection. A 64 year-old woman with 4-year history of cervical facet syndrome was admitted for the fourth facet block. Cardiac arrest followed with unconsciousness and apnea occurred 4 minutes after cervical facet joint injection with 2 ml of 2% lidocaine. The patient was immediately resuscitated and recovered without any sequelae.
Sudden cardiac arrest can be unexpectedly developed during facet block, and we recommend close monitoring during cervical facet joint block. |
| Key Words:
complications; facet joint block; lidocaine; spinal anesthesia |
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