Child with aplastic anemia: Anesthetic management

• Main Authors: Manpreet Kaur, Babita Gupta, Aanchal Sharma, Sanjeev Sharma
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2012-01-01
• Series: Saudi Journal of Anaesthesia
• Subjects: Aplastic anemia; pancytopenia; anesthesia
• Online Access: http://www.saudija.org/article.asp?issn=1658-354X;year=2012;volume=6;issue=3;spage=298;epage=300;aulast=Kaur

Aplastic anemia is a rare heterogeneous disorder of hematopoietic stem cells causing pancytopenia and marrow hypoplasia with the depletion of all types of blood cells. This results in anemia, neutropenia and thrombocytopenia, which pose a challenge to both surgical and anesthetic management of such cases. We report a child with aplastic anemia who sustained traumatic ulcer on the arm and underwent split-thickness skin grafting under general anesthesia. There are only two case reports on anesthetic considerations in aplastic anemia patients in the literature. The anesthetic management is challenging because of the rarity of the disease, associated pancytopenia and immunosuppression.