Anesthetizing a Patient with Escalating Cardiac Enzyme Levels for Urgent Noncardiac Surgery: Clinical and Ethical...

An 81-year-old man with a history of villous adenoma of the duodenum was admitted with new-onset jaundice, abdominal pain, and pruritus, which raised concerns about disease progression and hepatobiliary obstruction. The patient had refused surgical resection of tumor on initial diagnosis 2 years earlier and opted out of it again at the current presentation because of his significant comorbidities. While discussing treatment options with his family, he developed symptoms suggesting myocardial infarction. Therefore, before anesthetizing this patient with escalating cardiac enzyme levels for an urgent noncardiac procedure, it was important to attend to the dynamics of the decision-making process.