Malignant hyperthermia in India: Time for awakening, useful facts on Dantrolene

Abstract

A 33 year old lady with no obvious reason to suspect susceptibility to malignant hyperpyrexia (MH) succumbed to this unexpected complication in spite of attempts to save her life with aggressive supportive measures. We are reporting this case of possible malignant hyperthermia probably the seventh reported case in India and second from Kerala in the last decade (Saxena and Dua, 2007; Punj et al., 2001; Gopalakrishnan et al., 2010; Jain, 2010; Ramakant and Singh, 2012; Sharma et al., 2012). This was the first ever case of MH in our institution in 25 years This emphasises the need to ensure availability of Dantrolene and MH kits, diagnostic centres with appropriate lab controls and above all high index of suspicion and heightened awareness among the anaesthesiologists of this potential albeit rare risk of MH in Indian population.

Keywords

• Malignant hyperthermia
• End tidal CO2
• Dantrolene