Anesthesia and tuberous sclerosis

PubMed, the Internet portal of biomedical and life sciences literature, indexed an interesting article, entitled ”Anesthesia concerns for children with tuberous sclerosis” (AANA J. 2006 Jun;74(3):219-25). Authors are Septer S, Thompson ES, and Willemsen-Dunlap A from the Anesthesia Associates of Kansas City, Kan, USA. Tuberous sclerosis (TS) is a relatively rare, autosomal dominant syndrome that displays high genetic penetrance in affected families. It is identified by a classic triad of symptoms including epilepsy, skin lesions, and mental retardation. Tuberous sclerosis causes hamartomas in multiple organ systems, including the brain, skin, heart, kidneys, lungs, and liver. Awareness of the signs and symptoms and the organs involved is critical to provide safe and effective anesthesia care. The authors describe a 10-year-old girl with TS scheduled to receive a general anesthetic for laser treatment of facial angiofibromas. To access the full abstract of the article, click here.