Skip to main content

Table 1 Clinical features of the VAE cases

From: Could cough be an intraoperative indicator for venous air embolism in deep brain stimulation surgeries?: experiences from a large case series

No.

Age

Cough

Duration

Tremor

Other complaints

Influence

Hospitalized

1

63

++

5.5

-

-

None

7

2

68

+

2

+

+

None

6

3

75

+++

12

++

+

SO

8

4

73

+++

9

+++

+

DH, SS

11

5

67

+

3.5

+

+

None

6

6

63

+

2

+

-

None

7

7

67

++

4

+

-

None

6

8

74

+++

15

++

+

SO

10

9

63

++

8

+

-

SS

6

10

70

+

4

-

-

None

5

11

65

+

1.5

+

+

None

6

12

69

+++

11

+++

+

DH, SS

23

13

62

+

3

+

-

None

7

14

71

++

3

+

+

SS

7

15

66

+++

7

+++

+

SS

8

16

69

++

5.5

++

-

SO

6

  1. Abbreviations: SO slowing the operation, SS surgery suspension, DH difficulty in hemostasis
  2. 1. Assessment of the cough during the surgery: +, mild and transient coughing periods during the surgery; ++, evident but gradually attenuating coughing periods during the surgery; +++, intensive and unremitting coughing periods during the surgery
  3. 2. Assessment of the tremor intensity during the cough: −, no tremor; +, mild tremor with little influence on the surgical site; ++, evident tremor with moderate shaking of the head, obscuring the surgical site; +++, violent whole-body tremor with gross shaking of the head, making it almost impossible to visualize the surgical site clearly
  4. 3. +, having more than one of these symptoms, including tachypnea, chest pain, chest distress and dyspnea; −, no other complaint was reported