Anesthetic Implications of Malarial Infection in a Child

Abstract

Malaria is a life-threatening mosquito-borne parasitic disease, with a wide clinical spectrum and multisystem involvement. It is associated with high rates of mortality and morbidity worldwide, particularly in Africa and Southeast Asia. Cases are now being reported in developed countries resulting from global and international travel. Given the varied presentation and multisystem involvement, patients with malaria may present for surgery, thereby necessitating anesthetic care. We present a 4-year-old child from Burkina Faso, Africa, with a known diagnosis of Plasmodium falciparum malaria, who presented for anesthetic care for a magnetic resonance imaging of the lumbar spine, requiring general anesthesia. The etiology and presentation of malaria are discussed and its end-organ involvement is reviewed with emphasis on the anesthetic implications of the disease.