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Updated: Aug 18, 2026

Recording Brain Electromagnetic Activity During the Administration of the Gaseous Anesthetic Agents Xenon and Nitrous Oxide in Healthy Volunteers
Published on: January 13, 2018
[General anesthesia in two patients with mitochondrial myopathy]
A Klockgether-Radke1, T Henze, U Braun
1Zentrum Anästhesiologie, Rettungs- und Intensivmedizin, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen.
Abstract:
Two patients with mitochondrial myopathy (Kearns-Sayre syndrome) received general anaesthesia. In the first case propofol-alfentanil anaesthesia was carried out; the second patient received propofol-fentanyl anaesthesia. Muscle relaxation was provided with vecuronium. In both cases we observed a short episode of bradycardia (heart rate < 50.min-1), which was successfully treated with atropine. After the propofol infusion had been stopped, both patients rapidly gained consciousness and were extubated after prompt spontaneous ventilation had returned. Reversal of neuromuscular blockade in the second patient was achieved within 5 min by neostigmine. Special anaesthetic problems in patients with mitochondrial myopathies such as myocardial conduction disturbances, postoperative muscle hypotonia, and possible increased susceptibility to malignant hyperthermia can be overcome by the described anaesthetic management.
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