Indian Journal of Anaesthesia (Jan 2018)

Undiagnosed intraoperative methaemoglobinaemia

  • Swapnil Verma,
  • A K Sathpathy,
  • U Srinivas,
  • Sanath Reddy

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4103/ija.IJA_422_17
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 62, no. 1
pp. 72 – 74

Abstract

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Methaemoglobinaemia is a rare but potentially dangerous haemoglobinopathy that is often underdiagnosed. It is one of the causes for unexplained cyanosis with dark-coloured blood, especially in the absence of cardiac or pulmonary pathology. Not uncommonly so, it is an incidental perioperative finding in cases of dark-coloured blood not improving with oxygen in apparently acyanotic patients. The present case report is of a child with deaf-mutism posted for cochlear implant surgery who presented with 'chocolate-coloured blood' in the surgical field, despite blood gas analysis showing a normal partial pressure of oxygen.

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