Background The administration of general anaesthesia in patients with aortic stenosis (AS) requires careful attention to haemodynamics. We used remimazolam for the induction and maintenance of anaesthesia in a woman with severe AS undergoing a total mastectomy. Case presentation An 81-year-old woman with severe AS was scheduled to undergo a total mastectomy. We decided to administer total intravenous anaesthesia with remimazolam to minimize haemodynamic changes. Although the patient showed transient hypotension after anaesthesia induction, the cardiac index was preserved with a low dose of continuous noradrenaline. The anaesthesia was then safely maintained without a decrease in the patient’s cardiac index. Conclusions General anaesthesia using remimazolam preserved cardiac output in this patient; therefore, remimazolam can be safely used to avoid the risk of cardiac suppression in patients with severe AS.

Remimazolam is an ultrashort-acting benzodiazepine that causes minimal hemodynamic changes. We present two patients, with reduced ejection fraction, who underwent remimazolam anesthesia for transcatheter edge-to-edge repair of the mitral valve with the MitraClip system. In case 1, the patient's vitals were stable throughout the surgery. However, in case 2, which had a lower cardiac output, the patient's blood pressure decreased remarkably after anesthesia induction. Though remimazolam does not alter the cardiac output, it reportedly has vasodilatory effects. Since remimazolam can reduce blood pressure in patients where the reduction in cardiac output is compensated for by high peripheral vascular resistance, caution should be exercised.

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