Anaesthetic Management of Intracranial Abscess in a Patient with Surgically Uncorrected Double Outlet Right Ventricle with Transposition of Great Arteries

Double Outlet Right Ventricle (DORV) with Transposition of Great Arteries (TGA) is a rare variant. The ventriculoarterial discordance due to this anatomical defect leads to parallel circulation. The postnatal survival depends on mixing of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood at various levels by defects like Atrial Septal Defect (ASD), Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD), Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA). Anaesthetising children with cyanotic Congenital Heart Disease (cCHD) and brain abscess necessitates use of anaesthesia protocol appropriate to both cCHD and intracranial surgery. Anaesthetic considerations related are maintenance of intravascular volume and preload, avoidance of precursors to acidosis such as hypothermia, hypercarbia, and hypotension and challenge for anaesthesiologist is to maintain Pulmonary Vascular Resistance (PVR) and Systemic Vascular Resistance (SVR) by pharmacological and ventilatory means. This report is about a seven-year-old child who was posted for emergency craniotomy and abscess drainage, after routine preanaesthetic check-up. Induced with fentanyl, ketamine and atracurium, anaesthesia was maintained on oxygen, air and sevoflurane. Intraoperatively, normothermia was maintained, and blood pressure was maintained by noradrenaline infusion, metabolic acidosis was corrected with soda-bicarbonate. In between the procedure, the patient had an episode of Supraventricular Tachycardia (SVT), which was managed with lidocaine, metoprolal and adenosine. In such cases, it is vital to pay attention to any potential anaesthetic interactions.