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

Table 2 Comparison of clinical features among groups divided by cough extent

		ALL/Mean	+^a	++^a	+++^a	p value
Number		16	6	5	5	>0.5
Age		67.8	65.8	66.6	71.4	<0.05
Sex						>0.5
	Male	9	3	3	3
	Female	7	3	2	2
Diagnosis						>0.5
	Parkinson’s disease	14	5	4	5
	Dystonia	1	1	0	0
	Essential tremor	1	0	1	0
Side						>0.1
	Left	9	4	1	4
	Right	7	2	4	1
Cough beginning						>0.1
	BH	6	3	2	1
	DR	9	2	3	4
	MR	1	1	0	0
Duration		6.0	2.7	5.2	10.8	<0.01
Tremor^b						<0.05
	-	2	1	1	0
	+	8	5	3	0
	++	3	0	1	2
	+++	3	0	0	3
Other complaints						<0.05
	-	7	3	4	0
	+	9	3	1	5
Influence						<0.01
	None	8	6	2	0
	Little influence*	6	0	3	3
	Great influence*	2	0	0	2
Treatment^c						<0.01
	≤3	12	6	5	1
	>3	4	0	0	4
Hospitalized		8.1	6.2	6.4	12.0	<0.01

Abbreviations: BH cough began with the burr hole placement, DR cough began with the dural incision, MR cough began with the microelectrode recording, *, Little influence on the surgery, leading to slowing of some operations; Great influence on the surgery, sometimes resulting in difficulty in hemostasis, surgery suspension and ICU observation
^aGroups were established based on the cough extent during DBS surgery: see Table 1
^bAssessment of the tremor intensity during the cough: see Table 1
^cTreatment of the coughing period during and after the surgery: ≤3, treatment of less than 3 procedures; >3, treatment of more than 3 procedures

ISSN: 2057-4967