An elective total knee replacement in a patient with a recent history of cardiac arrest: A case report

Abstract

Performing surgery on a patient with a previous history of a major cardiac event, such as a myocardial infarction or cardiac arrest, is inherently risky and requires specific anesthetic and surgical-related measures to avoid perioperative complications. Our patient is a 63-year-old male who is a known case of chronic knee osteoarthritis with a history of myocardial infarction leading to cardiac arrest. He was resuscitated and transferred to the catheterization laboratory and the occluded artery was stented. Within the 1st year after the cardiac arrest, he presented to the orthopedic clinic complaining of worsening knee pain and a reduced range of movement that affected his quality of life. We performed the surgery 2 months later and the patient was discharged with satisfactory results and no complications. This case reports how we prepared a patient with a recent history of cardiac arrest for a total knee replacement from an anesthetic and surgical point of view.