Successful use of inhaled nitric oxide for treatment of severe hypoxemia in an infant with total anomalous pulmonary venous return
Okamoto, K.; Sato, T.; Kurose, M.; Kukita, I.; Fujii, H.; Taki, K.
Anesthesiology 81(1): 256-259
1994
ISSN/ISBN: 0003-3022 PMID: 8042794 Document Number: 435787
Infants with total anomalous pulmonary venous return (TAPVR) often present with heart failure or cyanosis or both. These infants become severely cyanotic and acidotic; and their condition may deteriorate rapidly. Mechanical ventilation, along with sedatives and muscle relaxants, is often used to stabilize the children's condition preoperatively. However, urgent operation usually is necessary. Nitric oxide (NO) has been identified as an endothelium-derived relaxing factor, 3 and the addition of low-dose NO to inspired gas has been shown to provide selective pulmonary vasodilation both in animals and in humans. We describe an infant with TAPVR in whom inhalation of low-dose NO was used successfully to treat life-threatening hypoxemia.