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Pheochromocytoma and pregnancy: a case report and review of anesthetic management

[Phéochromocytome et grossesse. Exposé d’un cas et revue de la démarche anesthésique]

From the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, St. Joseph’s Health Care, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.

Address correspondence to: Dr. John G. Fuller, Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, St. Joseph’s Health Care, 268 Grosvenor Street, London, Ontario N6A 4V2, Canada. Phone: 519-663-3283; Fax: 519-663-3079; E-mail: jfuller{at}uwo.ca

Purpose: To describe a patient diagnosed with pheochromocytoma in the third trimester of pregnancy and discuss the perioperative and anesthetic management.

Clinical features: A 32-yr-old previously healthy woman (gravida 4, para 2) presented to our tertiary care obstetrical hospital at 34 weeks five days gestation with a history of labile blood pressure and severe hypertension. A week prior to admission she began having episodes of severe headache, dizziness, sweating and nausea. On a routine obstetric visit she was noted to be severely hypertensive with a blood pressure of 200/120 mmHg. Biochemical investigations confirmed the diagnosis of pheochromocytoma and magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated a 3 cm x 3 cm right adrenal mass. The patient was invasively monitored in the intensive care unit and treated with alpha- followed by beta-blockade with phenoxybenzamine and metoprolol. A multidisciplinary conference was organized involving endocrinology, anesthesiology, general surgery and obstetrics to determine the most appropriate management of the patient. An uncomplicated laparoscopic adrenalectomy was performed following a period of recovery after an uneventful elective Cesarean delivery.

Conclusions: The primary goals in the management of pheochromocytoma in pregnancy are early diagnosis, avoidance of a hypertensive crisis during delivery and definitive surgical treatment. Timing of surgical resection will depend on the gestational age at which diagnosis is made. Cesarean section is the preferred mode of delivery when the tumour is still present. This case illustrates that with antenatal diagnosis, advanced methods of tumour localization, adequate preoperative adrenergic blockade and team planning, pheochromocytoma in pregnancy can be treated successfully.