Pheochromocytoma Crisis Treated with Urapidil: a Case Report

Abstract

Pheochromocytomas are rare tumors that present with a broad spectrum of symptoms and signs, making differential diagnosis broad. They can cause a pheochromocytoma crisis that manifests with arterial blood pressure oscillations, and subsequent symptoms and signs of catecholamine overproduction. There are many potential triggers of this condition. This report presents a 33-year-old man with an obvious pheochromocytoma crisis that occurred due to beta-blocker application without a concomitant alpha-blocker. The crisis was treated with high doses of urapidil, and once permanent hemodynamic stabilization was achieved, urapidil was replaced with phenoxybenzamine. This report demonstrates that pheochromocytoma crisis can be successfully treated with urapidil but further consideration is needed on the use of urapidil both in pheochromocytoma crisis and preoperative management of pheochromocytoma patients.

Keywords

• Pheochromocytoma
• Hypertensive crisis
• Urapidil