Intraoperative bronchospasm after intravenous adenosine during general anesthesia

Adenosine with its rapid onset and brief duration of action has a number of clinical applications including treatment of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia and maximal coronary vasodilatation during pharmacologic stress testing. The adverse effects of adenosine include dyspnea, nausea, headache, chest pain, flushing and bronchospasam. Although there were few reports which mentioned the occurrence of bronchospam after administration of adenosine, a number of studies indicated that the use of adenosine was not contraindicated in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or asthma. We report here a male patient with pulmonary emphysema and lung bullous disease who developed severe constriction of the main bronchi after intravenous adenosine during general anesthesia. After treatment, the patient was discharged without complications. We have reviewed the related current literature and herein discuss the reason and management of the adenosine induced bronchospasm.