[Death after delayed recovery and respiratory failure following injection sclerotherapy in a small infant under...

A 12 month old boy weighing 6.4kg with esophageal varices caused by congenital biliary hypoplasia was scheduled for emergency sclerotherapy under general anesthesia. Anesthesia was induced with thiamylal sodium 3mg.kg-1 i.v. and then maintained with nitrous oxide, oxygen and a low concentration of enflurane, paralysed with pancuronium bromide. As soon as a small dose of sclerosant (5% ethanolamine oleate) was injected, transient moderate bradycardia and hypotension occurred. As his spontaneous breathing was very weak and the movements of extremities convulsive and his consciousness drowsy, prophylactic respiratory care was carried out. He had pneumonia and manifestation of DIC 4 days after sclerotherapy. He died of a massive tracheal hemorrhage. The cause of the patient's death seemed largely due to the several toxicities of sclerosant itself. We stress that although this therapy is effective for the child with portal hypertension, the incidence of complications might be high in patient with severely damaged liver function. Therefore, anesthetic and postoperative management in injection sclerotherapy should be performed very carefully.