Anesthesia for oncogenic osteomalacia--a rare paraneoplastic syndrome

Two patients with a diagnosis of oncogenic osteomalacia are described. This rare disease, characterized by secretion of fibroblast growth factor-23 by the tumor cells, causes myopathy, extreme debilitation and severe osteopathy because of severe hypophosphatemia. Both patients presented with severe bone pain, pathological fractures and proximal muscle weakness. Multiple diagnostic tools had to be utilized to settle the diagnosis of this rare disease. Although supplemental therapy for hypophosphatemia is usually started preoperatively, surgical excision of the causative tumor is the only definite treatment. Surgery is almost always curative; however, there is a lack of discourse in the literature regarding the anesthetic implications for the disease. The complete pathophysiology of the disease, clinical picture, its diagnostic intricacies as well as the salient points in its anesthetic management are discussed in this report.