Re: General Anesthesia for Muscle Biopsy?

February 12, 2003

Mike

A local anesthesia can change the muscle and make the results more

unreliable. The doctors at CCF and others can't agree on this, but that is

the policy at CCF. I had a spinal when I had my biopsy at CCF, so that is an

option you could discuss with your anesthisiologist.

Good luck on getting answers.

laurie

"

Reply-To:

Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 03:37:46 -0000

To:

Subject: General Anesthesia for Muscle Biopsy?

Hi,

I've been in and out of this group while waiting for a diagnosis. I

ahve a muscle biopsy appointment at CCF on March 6. I got a call

today from the nurse, and I was told that there would be general

anesthesia! :-O Isn't that overkill? I had a local for a bone

marrow biopsy, and that seems more invasive then a little piice of

muscle. I'm scared!! I have bad dysautonomia, too, and many

dysautonomia patients got their condition after surgery. Can anyone

set me straight on this?

Thanks,

Mike

February 21, 2003

> A local anesthesia can change the muscle and make the results more

> unreliable. The doctors at CCF and others can't agree on this, but

that is

> the policy at CCF.

I think at Dr. Shoffner's lab they use local anesthesia for adults

and general for children. My results certainly were clearcut from

what I read, and I couldn't have had general anesthesia due to health

issues, so it worked well for me.

I had some muscle twitching but not much pain during the procedure.

The local is only for the nerves, not the muscle, so I don't think

they use it right where they get the biopsy from.

Take care,

RH

February 21, 2003

RH

I think you had the muscle numbed. That is how Dr. Shoffner did mine. I had

one without the muscle being numbed. They only took 3 fibers, but was the

type of pain from a bone marrow test, but six times. That was not nearly

enough muscle for mito testing. It was actually less than my needle biopsy.

laurie