Anesthesia for Cesarean Section in a Parturient Patient with Eisenmenger's Syndrome : A case report

Lee, Bong Jae

Case Report

Obstetric Anesthesia

Anesthesia and Pain Medicine 2006;1(2):116-119.
Published online October 30, 2006.

Anesthesia for Cesarean Section in a Parturient Patient with Eisenmenger's Syndrome : A case report

Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, East West Neo Medical Center, College of Medicine, Kyunghee University, Seoul, Korea. lbj8350@naver.com

Abstract

Eisenmenger's syndrome is defined as the process in which a left-to-right shunt in the heart causes increased flow through the pulmonary vasculature. This causes pulmonary hypertension that in turn causes increased pressures in the right side of the heart and reversal of the shunt into a right-to-left shunt. All the patients with Eisenmenger's syndrome are at a markedly increased risk and they have a poor prognosis. We experienced a case of a 29-year-old woman, who was 35 weeks pregnant, with Eisenmenger's syndrome. We carefully performed epidural anesthesia with a fractionated dose of 2% lidocaine and fentanyl. The sensory block reached to the T10 level. The blood pressure was controlled using an infusion of phenylephrine. The patient was discharged for home 12 days later without any complications.

Key Words: cesarean section, Eisenmenger's syndrome, epidural anesthesia