Epidural anesthesia and general anesthesia using the cuffed oropharyngeal airway for an obese patient with Duchenne's muscular dystrophy

Duchenne's muscular dystrophy is a genetic disorder whose features include abnormal responses to muscular relaxants and possible respiratory dysfunction after general anesthesia. The purpose of this report is to describe one management strategy used successfully to anesthetize an obese man with this disorder for atypical mastectomy. The anesthetic management during surgery involves epidural anesthesia using 2% mepivacaine and general anesthesia using the cuffed oropharyngeal airway. Postoperatively 0.25% bupivacaine was infused for epidural analgesia. The patient was observed in the intensive care unit until the first postoperative day and showed an uncomplicated intra- and post-operative course.