Abstract
A 74-year-old female was scheduled for cataract surgery under local anesthesia. Several minutes after unilateral retrobulbar anesthesia with 3.5 mL lidocaine was administered by an ophthalmologist, loss of consciousness and respiratory arrest occurred. Because brain stem anesthesia following inadvertent subarachnoidal injection of lidocaine through the optic nerve sheath was suspected, the patient's lung was manually ventilated with a bag and mask by anesthesiologists until spontaneous respiration recovered. As a result, spontaneous respiratory effort was observed approximately 30 minutes after the adverse event, and respiratory function and other motor function recovered completely in 65 minutes. Even in retrobulbar anesthesia, we should pay careful attention to the possibility of critical complications.
