[Anesthetic implications in antiphospholipid syndrome. 2 clinical cases]

Anti-phospholipid syndrome, originally called anticardiolipin syndrome, is characterized by the presence of anti-phospholipid antibodies and a marked tendency to both arterial and venous thrombosis. The little information available on the implications of this syndrome for anesthesia derive from the recent description of the disease. We describe 2 patients, each with 1 of the 2 forms of antiphospholipid syndrome that have been described to date, and each needing surgery for a different reason. The first was a 24-year-old woman who was admitted to the hospital with diarrhea, fever and metrorrhagia in her fifth month of pregnancy. Blood tests revealed a weakly positive title of anti-cardiolipin antibodies. Steroid and antiplatelet therapy was begun. Delivery was at 35 weeks by elective cesarean with epidural anesthesia due to oligoamnios. The second patient was 52-year-old woman with a history of 13 miscarriages, cerebrovascular accident and deep venous thrombosis. She had been diagnosed as having systemic lupus erythematosus with anti-phospholipid syndrome and was receiving corticoid and antiplatelet therapy. She had been admitted on 2 occasions for epistaxis, purpura in the lower extremities and severe thrombocytopenia. The last condition did not respond well to immunosuppressant therapy and a splenectomy was therefore performed with the patient under general anesthesia. In both cases recovery was good in spite of the serious complications of anesthetic management.