[Anesthesia for cesarean delivery in a woman with congenital aortic stenosis]

The patient was a 26-year-old primipara diagnosed in the first trimester with aortic stenosis and coarctation of the descending aorta. She had remained stable until the 37th week, when she developed dyspnea, edema in the lower extremities, crepitations, oliguria, hypotension, and mild sinus tachycardia consistent with left ventricular insufficiency. A cesarean was performed under general anesthesia with remifentanil, with good outcomes for mother and infant. Aortic stenosis causes left ventricular hypertrophy that increases the risk of myocardial ischemia and left ventricular insufficiency in combination with the physiological changes that pregnancy produces in the cardiovascular system. An emergency cesarean section in such patients requires preservation of hemodynamic stability, which is difficult to achieve with epidural or subarachnoid techniques. Remifentanil is an alternative to drugs used until now in this context.