["Malignant hyperthermia" following NLA and spinal anaesthesia (author's transl)]

A 51 years old patient underwent 3 urological operations within a short space of time. The anaesthetic procedures (NLA and spinal anaesthesia) caused a rise of temperature, hyperventilation and tremor, suggesting a malignant hyperthermia. The patient refused a muscle bioptical investigation. Biopsies were performed in the patient's children. In the daughter, some "whorled fibres" and single fibre necrosis, interpreted as signs of myopathy, were detected. The clinical syndrome of the father and the histological results of the daughter point out to the possibility that in this family a predisposition to malignant hyperthermia is present.