Anaesthetic considerations in a patient with an anterior mediastinal mass

Abstract

We report a 35-year-old gentleman who presented to us with respiratory distress. He was diagnosed to have a large anterior mediastinal mass and was and posted for debulking of mediastinal mass. Immediately after intubation, airway collapsed and there was difficulty in ventilating the lungs, followed by drop in oxygen saturation. After sternotomy, oxygen saturation and airway pressures improved. In this report we discussed in detail about the successful anaesthetic considerations for patients with large anterior mediastinal tumour including the management of airway obstruction.

Keywords

• Anterior mediastinal mass
• Airway collapse
• Sternotomy