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Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) poses many unique challenges regarding the conduct of anesthesia and surgery. Adequate preload, control of sympathetic stimulation, heart rate, and increased afterload are required to decrease the left ventricular outflow tract obstruction. Comprehensive intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) examination confirms the diagnosis, elucidates the pathophysiology, and identifies the various anomalies of mitral valve apparatus and allows assessment of the adequacy of surgery. In this review, we focus on the preoperative assessment, conduct of anesthesia and comprehensive TEE examination of patients presenting for surgery with HCM. The various surgical options are extended myectomy and resection, plication and release.

Ebstein's anomaly (EA) is the most common cause of congenital tricuspid regurgitation. The associated anomalies commonly seen are atrial septal defect or patent foramen ovale and accessory conduction pathways. Its association with coexisting mitral stenosis (MS) has uncommonly been described. The hemodynamic consequences and anesthetic implications, of a combination of EA and rheumatic MS, have not so far been discussed in the literature. We report successful anesthetic management of a repair of EA and mitral valve replacement in a patient with coexisting Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome.

Acute lung collapse during open-heart surgery may potentially lead to problems such as inadequate gas exchange, increased pulmonary vascular resistance, increased afterload to the right ventricle, and difficulty in weaning from cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). Therefore, expansion of the lungs is ensured prior to separation from CPB. We report the inability to manually expand a chronically collapsed lung during the repair of ascending aortic aneurysm. The collapsed lung did not pose difficulty in separation from CPB and in blood gas management during the perioperative period. We discuss perioperative management issues in such situations.