Korean J Anesthesiol.  2000 Jul;39(1):141-144. 10.4097/kjae.2000.39.1.141.

Retrial of Anesthetic Management for a Patient with Malignant Hyperthermia during Previous General Anesthesia

• Shim JK
• Nam SH
• Kim YJ
• Lee ES
• Suh CK

• KMID: 2091563
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4097/kjae.2000.39.1.141

Abstract

Malignant hyperthermia is a subclinical myopathy, usually triggered by anesthetics and associated with a mortality rate of up to 70%, when left untreated. But with early diagnosis using capnography and with the advent of dantrolene, the mortality rate could be reduced to less than 5%, which implies the significance of early diagnosis and proper treatment. Owing to the reduced mortality rate, anesthesiologists get more chances to encounter patients with a previous history of malignant hyperthermia and knowledge to provide proper anesthetic management become essential. We present a case in which malignant hyperthermia was detected in a 67 year old female patient with gastric cancer and a thyroid mass during the first operation and successfully treated with promptly initiated supportive measures based on capnography finding without dantrolene which was not available at the time and the same patient rescheduled for subsequent gastrectomy in which we chose non-triggering agents in adjunct to epidural anesthesia without provoking malignant hyperthermia.

Keyword

Anesthetic techniques: epidural; Complications: malignant hyperthermia

MeSH Terms

Aged
Anesthesia, Epidural
Anesthesia, General*
Anesthetics
Capnography
Dantrolene
Early Diagnosis
Female
Gastrectomy
Humans
Malignant Hyperthermia*
Mortality
Muscular Diseases
Stomach Neoplasms
Thyroid Gland
Anesthetics
Dantrolene