Spinal anesthesia in a scoliosis patient: a case report

Abstract

Background: Scoliosis is a spinal deformity that exceeds a curve of 10 degrees identified at an early age (10 to 16 years old). Neuromuscular scoliosis is associated with a heterogeneous spectrum of muscular or neurological symptoms. Thus it is challenging to give a patient neuraxial/spinal anesthesia treatment before the surgery as it can alter the respiratory mechanism by changing the muscle orientation in the respiratory system. Objectives: This paper reported a challenging case of thoracolumbar scoliosis presenting with osteomyelitis requiring sequestrectomy after the patient had a motorbike accident. Case: The patient had a previous history of difficult spinal anesthesia. Fortunately, it only took one attempt to do the spinal anesthesia for the recent surgery. Conclusion: This report emphasizes the need for anesthesiologists to evaluate the cardiopulmonary functions and radiology features of the spine and anesthesia techniques to provide safe and efficient treatment in such a patient.