Anesthetic management for cesarean section in patients with maternal myotonic dystrophy
Takano, Y.; Okada, K.; Murata, K.; Mizukami, S.; Sato, I.
Masui. Japanese Journal of Anesthesiology 43(9): 1348-1351
1994
ISSN/ISBN: 0021-4892 PMID: 7967031 Document Number: 423374
Myotonic dystrophy involves not only voluntary muscles of extremities, pharyngeal muscle and respiratory muscle but also smooth muscle in the gastrointestinal tract. This muscle involvement can cause difficulty in excreting sputa, delayed emptying time of stomach and regurgitation of gastric content, all of which can lead to disastrous complications of anesthetic management. Pregnancy is rare because of ovarian atrophy. We report two cases of cesarean section for patients with myotonic dystrophy. In one case, the newborn baby had dyspnea due to congenital myotonic dystrophy, and in another case, patient experienced postoperative pneumonia. Our cases and other reports suggest that spinal or epidural anesthesia is safely applied for a cesarean section of a patient with myotonic dystrophy.