[Perioperative administration of bicarbonated solution to a patient with mitochondrial encephalomyopathy]

A 16-year-old man with mitochondrial encephalomyopathy underwent biopsy and nephrectomy under general anesthesia. Mitochondrial encephalomyopathy is caused by mitochondrial dysfunction, and frequently accompanies elevation of lactic and pyruvic acid levels in the blood. It has been considered that problems of anesthesia for the patient with mitochondrial encephalomyopathy are the probability of hyperlactacidemia, the relevance to malignant hyperthermia, the possibility of myocardial disease and dysfunction of heart conduction system, respiratory depression due to muscle weakness, and so on. Therefore, to prevent hyperlactacidemia, we prepared the extracellular fluid solution including bicarbonic acid but no lactic and acetic acid, and infused the solution to the patient during anesthesia. By use of this solution, his lactic acid level was kept within the normal range during anesthesia and no metabolic acidosis occurred. His hemodynamics was stable and he showed normal response to vecuronium, recovering from anesthesia smoothly and postoperative course was uneventful.