Anesthetic Challenges of a Child with Sturge–Weber Syndrome for Epilepsy Surgery: A Case Report

Abstract

Sturge–Weber syndrome is a rare congenital disease, also called encephalotrigeminal angiomatosis, caused by persistence of transitory primordial arteriovenous connections of the fetal intracranial vasculature. It is characterized by vascular malformations with capillary venous angiomas that involve the face, choroid of the eye, and leptomeninges. The main clinical features of this syndrome are port-wine stains, glaucoma, convulsions, and angiomas of the airway. Anesthesia management is directed toward anticipating a difficult airway, avoiding trauma to the hemangioma during airway manipulation, preventing the rise in the intracranial and intraocular pressures, anticipating and managing massive blood loss and the complications associated with massive blood transfusion, and avoiding factors that might trigger a seizure such as hypoxia, hypercarbia, hypotension, hypoglycemia, and hyperthermia.

Keywords

• sturge–weber syndrome
• epilepsy surgery
• anesthetic implications