Anaesthesia Management of a Child with West Syndrome

Abstract

West syndrome (WS) is an epileptic encephalopathy usually occurring during the first year of life and is characterized by severe electroencephalography (EEG) derangement. Most of these patients may develop cerebral palsy, facial malformations, and skeletal deformities. The anaesthesiologist should make the preoperative assessment carefully due to epileptic seizures and should consider the possibility of difficult intubation because of coexisting anatomic malformations during the anaesthesia management of patients with WS. This report presents a case of general anaesthesia management in a left femoral fixation operation in an 11-year-old, 18 kg male patient.

Anesthetic Management of a Patient with West Syndrome

“…For years, there was no treatment success achieved for this syndrome. Sorel and Dusaucy reported in 1958 the use of ACTH for the treatment of infantile spasm [7,8]. West syndrome has a poor prognosis and resistant to standard antiepileptic medications [3].…”