• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.34 no.8
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• pp.634-639
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• 2001

Central anticholinergic syndrome is defined as an absolute or relative reduction in cholinergic activity in the central nervous system and has a wide variety of manfestations. It is associated with almost any drug given during anesthesia, except neuromuscular relaxants, and treated with the cholinesterase inhibitor physostigmine. The diagnosis of central anticholinergic syndrome is often made when symptoms resolve promptly after the administration of physostigmine. We present a case of a central anticholinergic syndrome diagnosed by treatment with physostigmine, in a patient who received closure of patent foramen ovale associated with stroke.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.250-252
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• 1999

A 77-year-old male patient was admitted to the hospital with acute appendicitis and underwent emergency appendectomy under inhalation anesthesia without any complications. After the operation, the patient was placed on epidural analgesia with the mixture of fentanyl-bupivacaine and scopolamine patch for nausea and vomiting. The patient experienced central anticholinergic syndrome (CAS) with hallucination, confusion, somnolence, dysarthria and delirium at 20 hours after patch placement and recovered from all symptoms of CAS in 24 hours after the removal of the patch. The CAS occurs when central cholinergic sites are occupied by specific drugs and also as a result of an insufficient release of acetylcholine. The diagnosis of CAS is often determined by a process of exclusion and not actually made until a positive therapeutic response to physostigmine, a centrally active anticholiesterase agent, has taken place. Treatment of CAS includes prompt removal of the patch, cleansing of the area, and physostigmine administration. The scopolamine patch should be used with extreme caution in elderly patient.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.241-246
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• 1999

Delirium is a syndrome characterized by impairement of consciousness, disorientation, disturbance of sleep-wake cycle, memory impairement, disturbance of perception. It is induced by many causes, which are CNS diseases(head trauma, vascular disease, brain tumor, etc), medical diseases(metabolic disorder, endocrine disturbance, cardiovascular disease) and drugs(anticholinergics, anticonvulsant, antipsychotics, cimetidine etc). Transdermal scopolamine which is usually used to prevent motion sickness has anticholinergic property, and so it can induce delirium. The authors report two cases of delirium induced by transdermal scopolamine. The cases shared common characteristics which were as follows : 1. All of two patients were elderly women. 2. Delirium symptom was abruptly occurred during trip after attaching scopolamine patches. 3. Delirium symptom was rapidly improved within 2-3 days. It is important to educate for both users and managers about directions for transdermal scopolamine patch usage to prevent delirium. And careful history taking is needed to diagnose delirium induced by transdermal scopolamine accurately.