Extreme arterial blood pressure differentials in a patient with Takayasu's arteritis

Concomitant Takayasu arteritis and Cushing syndrome in a child undergoing open adrenalectomy: An anaesthetic challenge

Takayasu's arteritis (TA) is a rare, chronic progressive panendarteritis involving the aorta and its main branches. Anaesthesia for patients with TA is complicated by their severe uncontrolled hypertension, end-organ dysfunction, stenosis of major blood vessels, and difficulties encountered in monitoring arterial blood pressure. In a patient with Cushing's syndrome (CS), the anaesthesiologist needs to deal with volume overload, hyperglycaemia, hypokalaemia, difficult airway and ventilation. Anaesthetic management of a patient with concomitant TA and CS undergoing adrenalectomy has hardly ever been reported. We present the successful anaesthetic management of a 15-year-old child with coexisting TA and CS undergoing open adrenalectomy.

Utility of intra-operative ultrasound in choosing the appropriate site for blood pressure monitoring in Takayasu′s arteritis

Takayasu's arteritis (TA) is rare, chronic progressive, pan-endarteritis involving the aorta and its main branches, with a specific predilection for young Asian women. Anaesthesia for TA patients is complicated by their severe uncontrolled hypertension, extreme arterial blood pressure differentials, aortic regurgitation (AR), end-organ dysfunction, stenosis/aneurysms of major blood vessels and difficulties encountered in monitoring arterial blood pressure. We present the usefulness of ultrasound during anaesthetic management of a 35-year-old woman posted for emergency caesarean section due to intra-uterine growth retardation, foetal tachycardia in active labour, who was already diagnosed to have TA along with moderate AR and uncontrolled hypertension, using epidural technique. The use of intra-operative doppler helped resolve the initial dilemma about the diagnosis and treatment of the differential blood pressure between the affected and the normal upper limb in the absence of prior arteriogram.

Takayasu aortoarteritis with dilated cardiomyopathy: anesthetic management of labor analgesia

Takayasu aortoarteritis in a pregnant patient is often associated with severe life-threatening complications. The coexistence of associated dilated cardiomyopathy can further complicate the pregnancy, particularly during parturition and at the time of delivery. We describe the management of labor analgesia in a symptomatic parturient suffering from advanced Takayasu aortoarteritis with dilated cardiomyopathy and a recent episode of congestive cardiac failure. The patient was man-aged with graded epidural analgesia instituted early in labor. Intermittent boluses of 0.0625% bupivacaine with 2 microg/mL fentanyl were administered epidurally, which provided adequate analgesia without impaired hemodynamic status.

Anesthetic management of patients with Takayasu's arteritis: a case series and review

Takayasu's arteritis is a rare, chronic progressive panendarteritis involving the aorta and its main branches. Anesthesia for patients with Takayasu's arteritis is complicated by their severe uncontrolled hypertension, end-organ dysfunction resulting from hypertension, stenosis of major blood vessels affecting regional circulation, and difficulties encountered in monitoring arterial blood pressure. Takayasu's arteritis is an uncommon disease and previous descriptions of the anesthetic management of patients with this disease have been limited to isolated case reports in the anesthetic literature, mostly in women undergoing cesarean delivery. We present our experience in this series of eight patients for various emergency and elective surgical procedures and review their perioperative problems and management.

IMPLICATIONS

This case series describes the anesthetic problems and management of patients with pulseless disease.