title: General anesthesia for children with severe heart failure.
abstract: Severe heart failure in children is uncommon. The anesthetic management of children with this condition is challenging. The authors aimed to identify the frequency with which anesthesia for short noncardiac surgical procedures or investigations was complicated by life-threatening hemodynamic instability and to describe the anesthetic techniques used. This study retrospectively reviewed the anesthetic charts and notes of children admitted acutely with a diagnosis of severe heart failure (fractional shortening of 15% or less) who received general anesthesia for noncardiac surgical or diagnostic interventions during the 3-year period from September 2005 to September 2008. In this study, 21 children received a total of 28 general anesthetics. Two patients (10%) experienced a cardiac arrest, and both required unplanned admission to the authors' pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) postoperatively. A variety of anesthetic techniques was used. In 27 (96%) of the 28 cases, perioperative inotropic support was required. General anesthesia for children with severe heart failure is associated with a significant complication rate and should be administered by anesthetists familiar with managing all aspects of circulatory support for children in an appropriate setting.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatric Cardiothoracic Anesthesia, Freeman Hospital, High Heaton, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, NE7 7DN, UK. tim.murphy@nuth.nhs.uk
authors.forename: Timothy W G
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.forename: Jon H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Michael R B
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Ranger
authors.forename: Simon R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Haynes
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000768:Anesthesia, General / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000379:methods; D000778:Anesthetics, Dissociative; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000473:pathology*; D006439:Hemodynamics; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D015278:Intensive Care Units, Pediatric; D007442:Intubation, Intratracheal / Q000379:methods; D007649:Ketamine / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008297:Male; D009466:Neuromuscular Blocking Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D010372:Pediatrics; D012121:Respiration, Artificial / Q000379:methods; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013223:Statistics as Topic
chemical_list: D000778:Anesthetics, Dissociative; D009466:Neuromuscular Blocking Agents; D007649:Ketamine