-transparent.png){kind=logo}
A patient is presented in whom 15 ml of 15% potassium chloride (30 mM) mixed with bupivacaine was injected epidurally for relief of pain resulting from widespread pelvic malignancy. Within minutes the patient complained of severe pain in both the lower limbs and rapidly became paraplegic with bladder and bowel incontinence. The paraplegia was permanent. The transient symptoms of pain may have been partly due to the irritant effects of a hyperosmolar solution of potassium chloride in the epidural space, while the permanent neurological damage might have been due to the very high extracellular concentration of potassium leading on to a depolarising phenomenon initially followed by nerve tissue necrosis.
K B Shanker, and
N V Palkar, and
R Nishkala
January 2008,
Annales francaises d'anesthesie et de reanimation,
K B Shanker, and
N V Palkar, and
R Nishkala
August 1982,
Anaesthesia,
K B Shanker, and
N V Palkar, and
R Nishkala
November 1975,
Anaesthesia,
K B Shanker, and
N V Palkar, and
R Nishkala
July 1969,
Anaesthesia,
K B Shanker, and
N V Palkar, and
R Nishkala
September 1958,
British medical journal,
K B Shanker, and
N V Palkar, and
R Nishkala
October 1981,
Anaesthesia,
K B Shanker, and
N V Palkar, and
R Nishkala
January 2000,
Revista espanola de anestesiologia y reanimacion,
K B Shanker, and
N V Palkar, and
R Nishkala
March 1994,
Masui. The Japanese journal of anesthesiology,
K B Shanker, and
N V Palkar, and
R Nishkala
September 1976,
Anaesthesia,
K B Shanker, and
N V Palkar, and
R Nishkala
September 2014,
Journal of clinical anesthesia,
