[Anesthetic management of patients with pre-excitation syndrome]

The authors reviewed the experience of anesthesia in 30 patients under extracorporeal circulation for surgical interruption of Kent's bundle. The key points of anesthetic management are to prevent and control supraventricular tachycardia, which had 35 episodes in 20 of the 30 patients, and disappeared after appropriate treatment. In this group, 18 patients had mild pre-excitation syndrome. After discontinuation of cardiopulmonary bypass, fifteen of the 18 patients were free from pharmacologic support, while 8 of the remaining 12 associated with other cardiac anomalies often necessitated positive inotropic agents.