Case report: anesthesia in patients with asphyxiating thoracic dystrophy: Jeune syndrome

Background and objectives: Jeune Syndrome or Asphyxiating Thoracic Dystrophy is a recessive autosomal disease. This syndrome is characterized by a bone dysplasia with varied abnormalities: thoracic, pancreatic, cardiac, hepatic, renal and retinal. Patients' age when the clinical condition is experienced correlates with the disease severity. These patients experience polychondrodystrophy with large, short, horizontal ribs and irregular costochondral junctions resulting in a rigid and reduced thoracic cage with varied respiratory injury level.

Case report: Male patient, 4 months-old, 7kg, suffering with Asphyxiating Thoracic Dystrophy, intubated and presented with reduced thoracic cage. Echocardiogram: mild pulmonary hypertension. Chest tomography: pulmonary hypoplasia. Patient submitted to bilateral thoracoplasty and thoracotomy with general anesthesia. Anesthesia maintenance: sufentanil e sevoflurane continuous infusion. Ventilation parameters: pressure-cycled mechanical ventilation. Thorax opening provided improvement of the ventilation parameters, but after thoracic prosthesis placement, ventilation was limited. Reduction of the thoracic prosthesis was considered with consequent improvement of ventilation.

Conclusions: Diagnosis of all present abnormalities is essential for the correct anesthetic management. Observation was necessary to adequate pre- and post-thoracotomy/thoracoplasty ventilation and to maintain patient hemodynamically stable. Pressure-cycled mechanical ventilation is the most adequate type of ventilation to overcome the mechanical barrier. In the intraoperative setting, the ideal is to maintain the inspiratory pressure peak as low as possible to minimize the risk of barotrauma, venous return impairment and reduced cardiac output.