Anesthetic management in a patient with giant growing teratoma syndrome: a case report

Growing teratoma syndrome is a rare occurrence with an ovarian tumor. Anesthesia has been reported to be difficult in cases of growing teratoma syndrome of the cystic type due to the pressure exerted by the tumor. However, there have been no similar reports with the solid mass type. Here, we report our experience of anesthesia in a case of growing teratoma syndrome of the solid type.

The patient was a 30-year-old Japanese woman who had been diagnosed with an ovarian immature teratoma at age 12 and had undergone surgery and chemotherapy. However, she dropped out of treatment. She presented to our hospital with a 40cm giant solid mass and severe respiratory failure, and was scheduled for an operation. We determined that we could not obtain a sufficient tidal volume without spontaneous respiration. Therefore, we chose to perform awake intubation and not to use a muscle relaxant before the operation. At the start of the operation, when muscle relaxant was first administered, we could not obtain a sufficient tidal volume. An abdominal midline incision was performed immediately and her tidal volume recovered. Her resected tumor weighed 10.5kg. After removal of her tumor, her tidal volume was maintained at a level consistent with that under spontaneous respiration to avoid occurrence of re-expansion pulmonary edema.

We performed successful anesthetic management of a case of growing teratoma syndrome with a giant abdominal tumor. Respiratory management was achieved by avoiding use of a muscle relaxant before the operation to maintain spontaneous respiration and by maintaining a relatively low tidal volume, similar to that during spontaneous respiration preoperatively, after removal of the tumor to prevent re-expansion pulmonary edema.