1. Rectal cancer in pregnancy: a new management based on blended anesthesia and monitoring of fetal well being
- Author
-
Mario Ciampelli, Alessandro Caruso, Beatrice Rossi, Gaetano Draisci, Liliana Sollazzi, and Leonardo Caforio
- Subjects
Adult ,Anesthesia, Epidural ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Surgical stress ,medicine.medical_treatment ,Rectum ,Adenocarcinoma ,Anesthesia, General ,Umbilical Arteries ,Pregnancy ,Monitoring, Intraoperative ,medicine ,Rectal Adenocarcinoma ,Humans ,Ultrasonography, Doppler, Color ,Fetal Monitoring ,Acid-Base Equilibrium ,Fetus ,Fetal viability ,Rectal Neoplasms ,business.industry ,Pregnancy Outcome ,Colostomy ,Obstetrics and Gynecology ,Heart Rate, Fetal ,medicine.disease ,Surgery ,Pregnancy Complications ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Reproductive Medicine ,Anesthesia ,Gestation ,Female ,business - Abstract
Colorectal carcinoma presenting during pregnancy is an extremely rare condition associated with a poor prognosis. In this report we studied a patient referred to our hospital at 26 weeks of gestation with the diagnosis of rectal adenocarcinoma. Tumor resection with a colostomy was planned in the attempt to preserve pregnancy until fetal viability could be reached. Blended anesthesia (general and epidural) was chosen to avoid surgical and anesthesiological risks; in fact this technique allows either an optimal block of neurohormonal response or a good control of surgical stress to be obtained. In order to monitor fetal well being during surgery, Doppler evaluations of fetal heart rate and umbilical artery flow velocity waveforms were performed. The patient was dismissed in good health and then rehospitalized at 32 weeks of gestation in order to perform an elective cesarean section. In conclusion we suggest that, with the choice of a good anesthesiological technique and monitoring of fetal well being, surgical treatment in case of rectal cancer could be performed without affecting the course of pregnancy.
- Published
- 2000
- Full Text
- View/download PDF